The 23-year-old who claimed to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen appeared in court Tuesday afternoon after being charged with lying to federal agents.
Brian Michael Rini last week claimed to Pitzen after he was seen wandering in a Newport, Kentucky neighborhood looking disheveled. Police ran a DNA test on him to confirm his identity and revealed that he was not Pitzen. He was then arrested for lying to federal agents, and appeared in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati on Tuesday for a detention hearing.
At the hearing, a federal magistrate ordered Rini to be “detained pending further proceedings,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Rini’s federal public defender Richard Monahan said during the hearing that Rini “has a significant mental health past” and was previously hospitalized for these issues.
After Rini told residents of Newport, Kentucky that he was Pitzen, he claimed to have abodominal pain. He was taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and released after staying for more than a day, the Enquirer reported. Rini also reportedly said he falsely claimed to be Pitzen because “he wished he had a father like Timmothy’s” and that he chose to impersonate the missing boy because his case had recently been rebroadcast on “20/20.”
The Associated Press reported that Rini had twice previously claimed to be a juvenile sex trafficking victim. He had been released from an Ohio prison in March after serving a year-long sentence for burglary and vandalism. Rini, who is actually from Medina, Ohio, had told people he had purchased a $400,000 home. He and friends then broke into that home and threw a party, which resulted in more than $1,000 in damage, according to USA Today.
Timmothy Pitzen went missing in 2011 when he was 6 years old. His mother had pulled him out of his Aurora, Illinois school and taken him on a short vacation. After three days, she was found dead in a hotel room by apparent suicide. She left a note saying “Tim is somewhere safe with people who love him and will care for him,” adding, “You will never find him.”
Pitzen would have been 14 at the time Rini made his claims last week. Rini at the time claimed that he had been held captive for seven years by two men and had just escaped from a Red Roof Inn across the bridge in Ohio.
Rini’s alleged deception calls to mind that of Frederic Bourdin, a French man who repeatedly claimed to be missing children, including Nicholas Barclay of Texas. Bourdin, like Rini, was 23 when he claimed to be the missing teenager, and was even flown to the U.S. and lived with Barclay’s family until a private detective determined he was not their missing family member.
While Rini’s claims were disproven by a DNA test, law enforcement released a statement last week saying police have “not and will not forget Timmothy, and we hope to one day reunite him with his family.”
Magistrate Judge Karen Litkovitz said during Rini’s hearing that he was on parole and had other warrants out for his arrest relating to other crimes, according to the Enquirer.