Grand Island teen sex trafficking suspect back in jail for violating bond provisions

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - The student at the center of a Grand Island human trafficking and child porn investigation has been removed from his parent’s house and put in jail for alleged violations of his bond.

Max Rookstool, 18, is charged with one count of first degree sexual assault, two counts of human trafficking, two counts of human trafficking of a minor, 11 counts of visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct and one count of unlawful distribution of images or videos of another person’s intimate area.

Rookstool, who at the time of his arrest in January was a student at Northwest High School, had been out on $400,000 bond, but a judge sent him to Hall County jail September 17 for violating the conditions of that bond, which required that Rookstool not use a smart phone, tablet, computer or other electronic devices except for school. He was also ordered to use no social media and was confined to his home except for school, health care or counseling.

Court records show that in August, Rookstool allegedly sent social media messages to juvenile males asking that they have sex with a person identified as “Max” or that they they physically assault “Max.” The messages threatened to make nude photos of the males public if they didn’t comply with the requests. Investigators traced those messages to an IP address assigned to Rookstool’s father’s residence.

Court records also indicated that officers served a search warrant on Rookstool in September and when they arrived at the house they found Rookstool leaving the residence with his mother. They also found a phone with internet access, an MP3 player, an XBOX, a smart TV and a laptop computer.

After a hearing earlier this month, a judge revoked Rookstool’s bond and sent him to the Hall County Department of Corrections. Rookstool will apparently remain in custody until a pretrial conference scheduled in January and a trial scheduled to begin sometime after Feb 1st.

In a related case, former Northwest teacher Brian Mohr, is facing child porn charges in federal court after he was found to have pictures related to Rookstool’s alleged crimes.