Man arrested on molestation charges

Jen Lawson

Friday, May 21, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

A Las Vegas man was arrested Wednesday on 50 child molestation-related charges after two 13-year-old girls told police he locked them in a closet, turned off the light and sexually assaulted them.

Timothy Ellerbe, 39, was being held this morning in the Clark County Detention Center on 40 counts of lewdness with a minor, seven counts of sexual assault of a minor and two counts of kidnapping. He was scheduled to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Ellerbe was taken into custody Wednesday at his home near Spring Mountain Road and Durango Drive.

The alleged abuse began in December 2003, but the arrest wasn't the first time Ellerbe has been charged with such offenses, according to court records.

He was arrested in September 2003 on three counts of lewdness with a minor and is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 13.

According to the arrest report in connection with the most recent case, a 13-year-old girl told a guidance counselor that Ellerbe had molested her on numerous occasions while at the his home.

Ellerbe allegedly played a game with the girls called "wedgie" in which he would grab their underwear from the back and pull it up out of their pants, the police report says.

The girls went into Ellerbe's closet to get a box of lollipops and he allegedly followed them. The report says he turned off the light, locked the door and molested them while they screamed.

After the girls managed to force their way out of the closet, Ellerbe persuaded one of the girls to talk to him in a bedroom and he allegedly molested her and told her not to tell anyone "because he could go to jail," according to the report.

The girl told police she felt Ellerbe "should be locked up for what he did to her," the report says.

About a week later one of the girls was at Ellerbe's home. He allegedly groped her and she threatened to tell her father about his behavior if he didn't stop.

Ellerbe then became enraged, the report says, and several days later he called her and told her "she had to do something to apologize to him" and suggested sexual acts.