Already, Rodreick's aunt has confirmed that Neil was himself sexually abused by neighbors while growing up in Oklahoma.
August also points out that Stiffler and Snow purchased a television and computer for Rodreick, as well as providing him with a home full of child pornography.
Fred Harper
AP/Wide World Photos
Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh presents a "Certificate of Appreciation" to Julie Bradshaw, left, and two others at the Mingus Springs school for helping unravel the Rodreick case.
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August believes Rodreick is psychologically stuck in adolescence, a sort of arrested development brought on by trauma. In addition to the sexual abuse, Rodreick's mother died when he was 14.
Rodreick was living under coercion and duress at the trailer, August suggests. He was the victim once again of predators, who showed him porn to keep him brainwashed.
"Here we have a young man with a very traumatized past, indeed, a past where he himself was victimized repeatedly," August says.
"Mr. Rodreick, I believe, was operating under an obvious mental disability that led him to believe that he was again a 12-year-old boy," he says. "He seemed convinced that he had to enroll in school like any other 12-year-old. He had to be home on time like any other 12-year-old boy. And he had to mind his elders like any other 12-year-old boy.
"And this is where he gets into trouble."
August points to the case of the Missouri boy who stayed with his abductor even though the boy seemed to have numerous chances to leave.
The analogy to the infamous Missouri case may save August's client from a life in prison.
There's only one problem:
Unlike the Missouri teenager, the teenager in this case isn't real.
He's actually 29-year-old convicted sex offender Neil Rodreick.