Man accused of child rape

By Kelli Wynn and Nancy Bowman

Staff Writers

TROY — At first glance, Kenneth Brandt appeared to be a pillar of the community. He had adopted children and was on the board of the Troy Junior Basketball Association. He did not have a criminal record.

Now Troy police are accusing Brandt of raping three and prostituting one of his four children .

Brandt, who owned Brandt Insurance Services, LLC — but did not have an insurance agent license, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance — had never been booked into the Miami County Jail prior to his Friday arrest, according to county jail records.

“It’s beyond my comprehension,” said Jeff Price, president of the Troy Junior Basketball Association, of the news about Brandt. “You don’t expect these things to happen so close to home.”

Price declined to comment on Brandt’s role in the youth sports program, but a 2010 Troy Junior Basketball Association handout posted online lists Brandt as a board member who served as 7th–9th grade representative.

On Tuesday, a man and a woman, who declined to identify themselves, were moving furniture and other items from Brandt’s ranchstyle brick house.

“I’m so ashamed. I don’t have anything to say,” the man said.

Brittani Jackson, who has lived a couple of houses down the street since October, said she did not see people around the house. A For Sale sign was in the yard recently, led her to think the occupants were moving.

“I was very shocked,” Jackson said of Brandt’s arrest.

Ed and Sherry Rogers said Brandt was living in the neatly kept house across the street when they came to the neighborhood five years ago. They said the first child showed up at the house about two-to-three years ago, followed by others last summer. They said they would see two boys and a girl with Brandt. They said they did not see three boys.

“The children were not out much. When the children were out, he’d be watching them,” Sherry Rogers said.

“You never think it’s going to hit that close to home,” Ed Rogers said of the allegations against Brandt. “I am ill and sick thinking about those kids.”