Gary Siders Jr. appeared in handcuffs as he pleaded not guilty in two criminal cases tied to the Vinton County investigation that began with sexual abuse allegations and led to 16 children living in disturbing
Gary Siders Jr. is now fighting two separate criminal cases in Vinton County, Ohio, after pleading not guilty Wednesday, Aug. 26, to both child endangerment charges involving his 16 children. He’s also facing a new, disturbing indictment accusing him of a minor relative.
Siders, 36, appeared in Vinton County Common Pleas Court in handcuffs for his arraignment before Judge Laina Fetherolf Rogers. Court records show he entered not-guilty pleas to 23 charges total across the two cases.
The newest indictment charges Siders with two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, all third-degree felonies. The indictment alleges the conduct occurred between January and September 2022. Court documents identify Siders as the alleged victim’s uncle and say the child was between 13 and 15 years old at the time.
Siders also pleaded not guilty in the separate case stemming from the June 30 discovery of 16 children inside the family’s Hamden home. He is charged with 19 counts of child endangerment: two second-degree felonies, 10 third-degree felonies and seven misdemeanors. Authorities have alleged the children suffered serious physical harm while living in unsafe conditions.
And Siders’ price for getting out of jail just got substantially steeper.
Court records show his existing $300,000 bond in the child endangerment case remained in place, while Rogers imposed another $250,000 bond in the sex-abuse case, bringing his combined bond to $550,000. The court also ordered GPS monitoring at his expense and prohibited contact with Elizabeth Siders, according to the arraignment entry.
The latest charges help explain how investigators ended up at the Siders home in the first place.
Authorities say an investigation into sexual abuse allegations involving two children began in December 2025. Information developed during that investigation led the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to open another probe in March involving allegations of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. On June 30, investigators went to the Siders’ residence to execute a search warrant and obtain Gary Siders Jr.’s DNA. It was during that search that authorities discovered the 16 children.
The sexual-abuse investigation has also produced charges against Joshua Saunders, 23, who is Gary Siders Jr.’s nephew and the grandson of Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders. Saunders and Brandon Henderson Sr., 40, face charges involving other alleged victims in a related investigation. Saunders has pleaded not guilty.
Elizabeth Siders, Gary Jr.’s wife, has also been indicted on two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in connection with the alleged abuse of the same other child. She has not yet been arraigned on those new charges because of an ongoing mental-health evaluation. A judge granted her attorney’s request for evaluations addressing both her competency to stand trial and her sanity at the time of the alleged offenses. The competency examination focuses on whether she currently understands the proceedings and can assist in her defense. Once that’s completed with available results, the court will decide how to proceed.
Los Angeles also revealed a past that began in 2020 in Gallia County involving the Siders’ children.
All charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.