GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Federal prosecutors referred to former Christian radio host John Balyo as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” who was “living a double life” in court documents obtained Friday by FOX 17 NEWS.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tessa Hessmiller filed the Sentencing & Restitution Memorandum in advance of Balyo’s Dec. 11 sentencing in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.
Balyo, 35, of Caledonia pleaded guilty in Calhoun County Circuit Court to first-degree criminal-sexual conduct. He also pleaded guilty to federal charges in the sexual assaults of the child at a Kalamazoo hotel.
Balyo is serving a sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison for molesting a boy in May in a hotel in Battle Creek.
The documents contain two pictures of the bondage kit that prosecutors say Balyo assembled and which was later confiscated.
They say Balyo had a storage unit where he kept not only the bondage kit but also a collection of newspaper articles on children and serial killers; notebooks containing numerous boys’ names and notations about them; photographs of nude children; DVDs; and recording and computer equipment, among other items.
The documents say Balyo possessed a life-sized anatomically correct mannequin of a boy, wearing a blond wig, that he kept tied up inside a dog crate. Homeland Security agents found photographs of Balyo pointing a handgun at the mannequin, which was tied up to a post.
The documents also contain details of Balyo and Ronald Moser assaulting young victims at a Kalamazoo hotel on April 19 and May 9 as well as at a Battle Creek hotel on May 17.
Moser was arrested June 5. Investigators say it was then that they discovered Balyo’s involvedment and he was arrested June 20.
The documents say Balyo had left his computer with a friend, who contacted law enforcement and turned over the computer after learning of Balyo’s arrest.
The computer contained child pornographic images produced by Balyo, among other items.
The documents say that “Balyo operated under the table, living a double life. On the outside, he was a law abiding, charitable, upstanding citizen… But underneath the surface, he was feeding a morbid and sadistic fascination with children, creating and accumulating pedophilic materials, rehearsing a sexual kidnapping fantasy with a gun and a child-sized mannequin, and meeting clandestinely in hotel rooms with young boys in bondage.”
