Sex case adjourned; victim runs away

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The 16-year-old alleged victim in a sex case against former school advocate Kenneth Hoskins Jr. has run away, leading to a delay in one of two sexual assault cases against him.

The girl doesn't want to testify, Hoskins' attorney, John Beason, told 24 Hour News 8.

Hoskins, 32, who worked as a school advocate at Central High School, is accused of having a sexual relationship with the 16-year-old student that allegedly started a month after he was hired. The alleged assault occurred at the school, police said.

Hoskins is also accused in a relationship with another 16-year-old Central High
Sophomore, which allegedly led to a Motel 6. She has testified against him in a separate preliminary hearing. In that case, he was ordered to stand trial.

In each case, he is charged with third-degree sexual assault -- 15-year felonies.

A preliminary hearing scheduled Monday in Grand Rapids District Court was abruptly adjourned after Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Bramble announced the girl had run away. His office will "seek something along the lines of a material witness warrant," Bramble said. That would allow police to hold her at Kent County Juvenile Detention if they find her.

A judge granted a two-week delay over Beason's objections.

"This is a very serious matter," he told the judge. "There's been a lot of TV and press coverage of this case. My client's life is in limbo."

Hoskins, the son of Grand Rapids Public Schools board of education member Rev. Kenneth Hoskins Sr., has a long court history, raising questions about how he got his school job.

It includes four paternity suits, one involving a 13-year-old girl when he was a 17-year-old senior at Creston High School.

Court records show he had four children by three teenaged mothers by the time he was 22.

In August 2007, he called Grand Rapids police on his estranged wife, alleging she assaulted him after she caught him in bed with another woman, according to a report obtained Monday by 24 Hour News 8.

Police didn't arrest his wife; instead they arrested Hoskins on an outstanding warrant for failing to show up in court in a paternity case.

Grand Rapids police reports, also obtained Monday, show arrests when he was
15 for stealing boots from a store, and in July 1995 for stealing shoes. In the 1995 case, he ran after security tried to stop him, and was arrested after a short chase.

School officials have said they checked his criminal record but were not aware of his court history.