An Ohio Republican lawmaker accused of sexually abusing his minor daughter publicly directed his Facebook supporters toward a critic Tuesday, posting the phone number used to send the message and asking followers to “blow up” the person’s phone.

The message that prompted State Rep. Rodney Creech, R-West Alexandria, to respond was brief:

“Shame on you. We believe your daughter. You should resign.”

Creech answered the text with a laughing emoji and wrote, “If you need any topsoil let me know.”

Then he posted the exchange to Facebook.

Facebook’s edit history shows four different versions of Creech’s post appeared over the next 11 minutes. Creech initially told followers he was “requesting” that they contact the sender and said, “I would love to see you blow their phone up.”

Three minutes later, he separately edited the post to add the phone number in plain text.

Five minutes after that, Creech edited the post again while leaving both the number and his explicit request intact.

Only in the fourth version, 11 minutes after the original post, did Creech soften the most direct language.

Facebook shows four versions of Creech’s post in 11 minutes

At 10:31 a.m., Creech published the original version alongside a screenshot of the text exchange. The sender’s phone number was visible in the screenshot.

Creech wrote:

“Someone sent me this text earlier.

So to friends and family that want to have fun…I’m requesting that you just drop this person a line and say hello.

Please be nice but I would love to see you blow their phone up.

When you play stupid games you win stupid prizes!”

Three minutes later, at 10:34 a.m., Creech edited the post for the first time.

He left his request that supporters contact the person unchanged.

But Creech made the sender easier to contact: he added the phone number itself in plain text beneath the post.

At that point, Creech was still explicitly telling followers, “I’m requesting that you” contact the person and “I would love to see you blow their phone up.”

At 10:39 a.m., Creech edited the post again.

He changed “Someone sent me this text earlier” to “A random person sent me this text earlier,” changed “friends and family” to “my fb friends and family,” and added a smiling emoji.

But the substance of the request remained.

Five minutes after Creech had added the phone number in plain text, the third version still told his followers:

“I’m requesting that you just drop this person a line and say hello.”

“Please be nice but I would love to see you blow their phone up.”

The phone number remained directly beneath those words.

It was not until 10:42 a.m. — 11 minutes after the original post — that Creech softened the language.

“I’m requesting that you just drop this person a line and say hello” became:

“maybe just drop this person a line and say hello.”

And “I would love to see you blow their phone up” became:

“Please be nice but I would love to see their phone blow with friendly Creech supporters just saying hello.”

The phone number remained in the post.

The edit history shows Creech did not simply expose the number in his original screenshot and then immediately retreat from his request.

Three minutes after publishing the post, Creech affirmatively added the number in plain text while retaining the words “I’m requesting that you” and “I would love to see you blow their phone up.”

He then edited the post again at 10:39 a.m. without removing either the number or those statements.

Only in the fourth version did Creech change the most direct language — while continuing to publish the number and encourage “friendly Creech supporters” to contact it.

TiffinOhio.net is withholding the phone number and has redacted it from images accompanying this report.

Supporters said they acted on Creech’s request

The comments beneath Creech’s post show that some followers understood his invitation literally.

One commenter wrote simply: “Done!”

Another wrote, “Maybe we should all send text messages to this phone number lol.”

A third said he had already contacted the number, writing that he “asked him if he needs topsoil” and offered “better prices and free delivery.”

Others continued joking about contacting the number.

Several commenters also began trying to identify the person behind it. Screenshots of social media accounts purportedly associated with the number were posted publicly beneath Creech’s post.

One supporter suggested going further, writing: “Just go put a little top soil on their front porch for free, maybe add some manure on top.”

Commenters also posted screenshots purporting to show that the number had previously been advertised in connection with a small business. TiffinOhio.net has not independently confirmed that the person associated with those accounts sent the original message to Creech.

Another commenter raised the possibility that the number could belong to someone who had nothing to do with the message, warning that “there’s a good chance some innocent person is going to receive the messages.”

Despite that uncertainty, Creech kept the number in the post while continuing to encourage his followers to contact it.

‘We believe your daughter’

The criticism that triggered Creech’s post referred to allegations that have followed the lawmaker since an Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation probe became public in 2025.

The allegations were not simply that Creech had been in bed with his daughter.

According to BCI documents obtained by the Statehouse News Bureau, Creech’s minor daughter accused him of climbing into bed and under the covers with her while erect and wearing only his underwear.

Creech acknowledged to investigators that he had gotten into bed with the minor while wearing his underwear, but denied the sexual nature of the allegations, including allegations of inappropriate touching.

The daughter alleged that Creech’s erect penis pressed or poked her in the back while they were in bed, according to the investigative record.

Another Republican lawmaker, state Rep. Phil Plummer, a former Montgomery County sheriff, was interviewed by BCI about a private conversation he had with Creech concerning the allegations.

According to BCI interview records, Plummer told investigators that Creech said he did not remember whether he had poked the minor in the back during the encounter.

Plummer told investigators Creech’s comments were “disgusting and uncalled for” and “appalling.”

“As a father myself, I think it’s just appalling,” Plummer told investigators, according to records reported by the Dayton Daily News.

When BCI investigators questioned Creech about his conversation with Plummer, Creech initially responded, “Whatever Phil told you I probably said,” according to the investigative records.

After investigators described Plummer’s account, Creech denied making the remarks.

Creech was never charged and has repeatedly denied sexually abusing his daughter. He has called the allegations “demonstrably false” and politically motivated.

But the special prosecutor who reviewed the investigation did not describe Creech as having been exonerated.

Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll declined to pursue charges in October 2024, writing that Creech’s behavior was “concerning and suspicious” while concluding that the available evidence fell short of the threshold needed for prosecution.

“I find the statements of [the alleged victim] to be persuasive but find no independent evidence to support their claims,” Driscoll wrote.

Driscoll later told the Dayton Daily News that his description of Creech’s behavior referred both to his conduct during the investigation and his conduct during the period investigators were examining.

Five months later, Creech gave $4,100 to prosecutor’s judicial campaign

The case also raised questions about how the allegations were initially handled in Creech’s home county — and about a large campaign contribution Creech subsequently made to one of the local officials linked to that handling.

In July 2023, the minor’s stepfather, an Ohio police chief, contacted Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson about the allegations.

According to a BCI investigative record, Simpson told a state agent that the stepfather believed he was required to report the alleged incident as a mandatory reporter and provided text messages describing Creech’s alleged conduct.

Simpson said he took the information to then-Preble County Prosecutor Martin Votel.

According to the investigator’s report, Simpson said Votel indicated “there was no criminal complaint at that time.”

“No report or other action took place from the sheriff’s office,” the investigator wrote.

Simpson later gave the Dayton Daily News a different description of the conversation, saying the stepfather had asked whether he was legally required to report the allegation and that Votel advised he was not a mandatory reporter in that circumstance.

Votel disputed both descriptions of his involvement.

“There was never a question presented to me about mandatory reporters,” Votel told the newspaper, adding that his office “did not and would not either encourage or discourage an investigation.”

What is undisputed is that no sheriff’s report was generated and no local investigation began when the allegations were first raised in July.

Both Simpson and Votel — described by the Dayton Daily News as personal friends of Creech — later recused themselves when the allegations resurfaced and an investigation eventually moved to BCI.

Then came the campaign contribution.

On Dec. 19, 2023, roughly five months after the allegations were first brought to Preble County authorities, Creech’s campaign transferred $4,100 to Votel’s campaign for Preble County Common Pleas Court judge.

Creech was Votel’s first and largest donor, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of campaign-finance records.

The contribution accounted for roughly 75% of the financial support Votel had received for the judicial campaign at that point.

It was the only contribution Creech’s campaign had made to Votel dating back to at least mid-2019 and was the fourth-largest expenditure Creech had made to any individual candidate during that period, according to the newspaper’s analysis.

Votel went on to win the March 2024 Republican primary with about 70% of the vote and was unopposed in November. He now serves as a Preble County Common Pleas Court judge.

Votel later donated $100 to Creech’s reelection campaign in September 2024.

There is no evidence that Creech’s $4,100 contribution was a bribe or was exchanged for any official action.

But its timing and size drew scrutiny because Creech made it after Votel had been identified by Simpson as having a role in the initial handling of allegations against Creech — allegations that produced no sheriff’s report or local investigation — and while Votel was campaigning for a judgeship.

Creech denied any connection between the contribution and the allegations.

“Marty Votel is a tremendous public servant, and I am proud to know him,” Creech told the Dayton Daily News, saying their friendship went back nearly 15 years.

Creech dismissed scrutiny of the payment as controversy over “one conservative supporting another.”

Votel also denied that accepting the contribution was improper.

“I did not then, and do not now, feel that my campaign’s acceptance of these contributions was unethical or inappropriate,” Votel said.

The contribution does not establish wrongdoing. But it is part of an unusual sequence: allegations were brought to Creech’s home-county sheriff; no report or investigation followed; the sheriff said he had taken the matter to the county prosecutor; both officials, who were personally acquainted with Creech, later recused themselves; and Creech then became that prosecutor’s first and largest donor as he sought a judgeship.

Creech’s daughter later spoke publicly

The identity of Creech’s accuser was initially withheld by news organizations because she was a minor relative.

His daughter has since publicly identified herself and directly challenged Creech’s characterization of her allegations.

As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, Creech publicly described his daughter’s allegations as “textbook parental alienation” and said the controversy was “100% in the name of politics” during a February Facebook dispute.

His daughter responded directly.

“You continue to post trying to nail my mother and blame her, instead of taking blame for your own inappropriate actions,” she wrote.

She later added: “Heaven forbid a child speaks out about something like this, right?!”

The comments subsequently disappeared from Creech’s page. Creech denied removing them.

That history explains the otherwise cryptic message Creech received Tuesday: “We believe your daughter. You should resign.”

The screenshot Creech himself published contains no threat. It shows a person criticizing an elected official and urging him to resign over allegations made by his daughter.

Creech responded by directing his political supporters toward the phone number used to send it.

Ohio law addresses inciting others to harass someone

Creech’s post also raises questions under Ohio’s telecommunications-harassment statute, although there is no indication he has been charged with an offense.

Ohio Revised Code 2917.21(A)(10) provides that no person shall knowingly “incite another person through a telecommunication or other means to harass or participate in the harassment of a person.”

The statute separately prohibits knowingly posting text or an image online “for the purpose of abusing, threatening, or harassing another person.”

A first violation of either provision is generally a first-degree misdemeanor.

The existence of the law does not mean Creech’s post automatically constituted telecommunications harassment. Whether conduct violates the statute depends on whether prosecutors could establish each element of the offense, including the required intent.

But Facebook’s edit history provides a contemporaneous record of exactly what Creech told his followers.

“I’m requesting that you just drop this person a line and say hello,” he wrote in the first version.

Then: “I would love to see you blow their phone up.”

Three minutes later, Creech edited the post to add the phone number itself in plain text while leaving both statements unchanged.

At least one person warned Creech in the comments about the potential legal issue.

“Just a heads up telling people to text somebody like that can be considered telecommunications harassment,” the commenter wrote.

Creech did not remove the number from the version of the post reviewed by TiffinOhio.net.

GOP leaders once asked Creech to resign

The episode comes after Ohio Republican leaders first punished Creech over the allegations and then reversed course.

When the BCI investigation became public in May 2025, Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman stripped Creech of all four committee assignments, including his chairmanship of the House Agriculture Committee, and asked him to consider resigning.

“This, on its face, was very serious,” Huffman said at the time.

Creech refused to resign.

Nine months later, Huffman restored Creech to four committees, citing the absence of criminal charges or other action by authorities.

Huffman then backed Creech’s reelection, and the Ohio Republican Party endorsed him for another term.

Creech went on to win the May Republican primary for House District 40 with about 58% of the vote.

He remains a sitting member of the Ohio House and the Republican nominee for another term.

Tuesday’s incident began with a person sending Creech seven words of political criticism: “We believe your daughter. You should resign.”

Creech’s original public response was equally clear about what he wanted his supporters to do.

“I’m requesting that you” contact the person, he wrote.

“I would love to see you blow their phone up.”