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Timmothy Pitzen Case: Who Is Brian Michael Rini? Court Records Detail a Troubled Past

NBC 5 Investigates has learned that Brian Michael Rini — the man who allegedly claimed to Kentucky authorities that he was Timmothy Pitzen, a boy who vanished from west-suburban Aurora several years ago — was just released from an Ohio prison less than a month ago after serving time for burglary and vandalism.

Authorities also tried to serve the 23-year-old Rini with a bill for unpaid fines, involving a separate criminal conviction, just last week. According to court records, that bill was returned when Rini could not be located, exactly eight days before he showed up in Kentucky.

Records from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction show that Rini was sent to prison at the Belmont Correctional Institution, in Clairsville, Ohio, following his conviction in Medina County in January of 2018. He was released —after serving most of an 18-month sentence — on March 7, 2019.

Records indicate that he was supposed to immediately begin three years of supervision. But last week, when officials in Stark County, Ohio tried to serve Rini with a bill for unpaid fines in a separate case, they couldn’t find him at his address of record in Medina, Ohio. The bill was returned to court — not served —on March 26, 2019 — exactly one week before Rini was discovered in Kentucky.

Rini’s jail term stemmed from an incident in August of 2017 in Brunswick Hills Township, Ohio. According to local news reports citing authorities, Rini and a group of friends held a "tattoo party" at a $400,000 model home, where they broke in and trashed the house.

"The plan was very obvious," Brunswick Hills Township police chief Tim Sopkovich told local news outlets at the time. Sopkovich quoted the men’s Facebook posts as saying "Come on over; it's a $400,000 home. We’re going to party, bring your own drugs."

Rini ultimately plead guilty to burglary and vandalism in that incident, in Medina County Court, in January of 2018.

While that case was in progress, Rini was found guilty in another case — this one in nearby Stark County. He’d been arrested in Massillon, Ohio, in April of 2017 and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, according to court records. In November of 2017 — after his arrest involving the house party — records show that he pled guilty in the Stark County case, and was sentenced to three years of probation, 200 hours of community service, restitution of $1,750, and other court costs. However, Rini did not pay up, before he headed to jail on his burglary and vandalism convictions, according to court records.

But documents in the Stark County case show that the court did not forget about the bill. The day after Rini’s release from the Belmont prison on March 7 of this year, county officials began trying to serve him — again — with a bill — now totalling $3,231.36 — for the accrued amount of his fine, court costs, and restitution. On March 26, the court’s "Notice of Delinquency for Court Ordered Cost" was — according to court records — "returned not served."

NBC 5 Investigates has also found that Rini was also convicted in an incident from August of 2015. Back then he pled guilty to passing bad checks, and was sentenced to three years of intensive supervision, according to Medina County court documents. He was brought back to court in 2016, and again in 2017, each time for violations of his probation. The final entry in that case occurs in March of 2017, just a month before Rini was arrested in Stark County.

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