HOUSTON – A single adoptive father of nine sons, accused of sexually abusing at least one of them, has now been hit with eight additional charges after more victims have come forward, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Hayim Nissim Cohen, 38, was initially charged with sexual assault of a child, ages 14-17, and continuous abuse of a child after his teen son called a podcast show, making an outcry of what allegedly was happening to him and his brothers, according to court documents.
“We have a household of boys that were extremely abused, neglected, and groomed. They were threatened they were in fear of their safety,” said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Janna Oswald.
Cohen was arrested Feb. 17 and booked into the Harris County Jail.
He appeared in court Thursday, at which time, prosecutors announced that five more victims have reported abuse.
“I have seven complainants In total and of the nine adopted children I have six named complainants,” Oswald said.
The outcry
A 17-year-old boy called into a podcast show and disclosed the sexual abuse he and his brother experienced by Cohen, according to court records. The documents did not state when the victim called into the show.
The teen told the podcaster that the suspect made him perform sexual acts and alleged that he was repeatedly “raped” by Cohen since he was 11 years old, and it was continuing.
The teen noted that there have been eight CPS investigations on his adoptive father, but nothing was ever done. He said he wanted to wait until he was 18 to come out about the abuse because no one ever believed him, according to court records.
The teen told the podcaster that he was able to call into the show through a burner phone using Wi-Fi, docs show.
CPS was notified and agents were able to track down the caller through an IP address after reviewing the podcast.
Action
When the teen was contacted by CPS and interviewed on Feb. 6 at the Houston Police Department, he initially denied the allegations about his adoptive father and what was said on the podcast, according to court records.
When the CPS investigator played his voice heard on the episode, he became scared and admitted that he was the person who called in and detailed the abuse he and his brother suffered while living with Cohen, documents show. The teen also admitted that the sexual abuse began just two weeks after he was adopted by Cohen.
He told the investigator that he has tried to run away and report the abuse, but that Cohen would turn all his siblings against him and blamed him.
During the interview, the teen said, when Cohen would get mad at them, he would call them “white trash” and “racist.” He detailed a time when his brother ran away but that the suspect lied to constable deputies, saying the boy was sleepwalking, when they returned him.
According to records, the teen said Cohen is fake and pretends he can’t walk because of his illness and only uses his wheelchair when people come over to the home or when they are out in public.
CPS also learned that Cohen was out on bond for indecency with a child from a previous case in 2019.
Details on 2019 indecency with a child case
On April 17, 2019, Cohen is accused of inappropriately touching a 16-year-old foreign exchange student, who was living with him during his visit from Spain, according to court documents.
During his first month at the home, the exchange student recalled having problems with the father, docs show. He told investigators that Cohen would make “big problems out of little ones” and would often make him feel guilty. The teen remembered getting in trouble for shoplifting socks at a Walmart. When in trouble, Cohen would allegedly tell the victim that he needed to “make him happy.”
According to documents, the suspect would touch the teen’s chest and stomach area and noticed that he got aroused while making noises. The sexual abuse would allegedly occur in the suspect’s bedroom while everyone in the home were asleep.
The victim made an outcry to his principal about the allegations and stated that the sexual abuse went on for about eight months until April 17, according to court records.
Detectives also learned that another foreign exchange student from Germany was also going to be staying with Cohen.
In total, Cohen has been charged with the following:
- Four counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child
- Three counts of sexual assault prohibited/ deviate
- Two counts of injury to a child
- One count super sexual assault of a child
- One count indecency of a child