Robert Schumann, who had one prior conviction for child molestation from 1976, was present at Sunny Rest at the eastern Naturist Society gathering in 1984. He had come to camp, after just being released from custody -- the day before -- for yet another child molestation case. Schumann arrived with Paul Zimmer, who was later convicted for raping the boy he had brought to Sunny Rest that day. The boy was sexually abused by several other adults present at the camp. 
     At the gathering Zimmer and Schumann had joined up with a former state trooper named James O'Boyle, a member at Sunny Rest, who was convicted several years later for over 90 counts of child rape and sodomy. 
     I was present at the camp and questioned all these men before the police arrived and talked to the young boy, too. The child was in very bad emotional shape and continues to be, according to law enforcement, to this day. Schumann was charged with sexually abusing the young boy as well, however, those charges were later dismissed. 
     Several years ago in 1986 Schumann pled guilty to "endangering [another] child" and served nearly two years in prison. Just this month Schumann has been convicted once again for 13 more counts for the sexual assault of four more boys. Printed below is the news article about his latest conviction. 
     Schumann, Zimmer, nor O'Boyle (even tho he is known to be corresponding with nudist groups from jail) is NOT on the American Association for Nude Recreation "Caution List". --Nikki Craft

After almost 5 l/2 hours of deliberation yesterday, a Superior Court jury found a Millstone Township man guilty of 13 counts in the sexual assault of four boys. 
     Robert J. Schumann, 51, a truck driver, known as "Taxi Man" for the name he used on his citizen band radio, was found guilty of assaulting each of the Burlington County boys, aged 5 to 14. 
     The incidents took place from January 1989 to May 1991 while he baby-sat each of the boys separately at the home he shares with his father in the Clarksburg section of Millstone and at a trailer home he owned in Pemberton Township. 
     Schumann was found guilty of various counts of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He was found innocent of one county of endangering the welfare of a child and of two counts of sexual assault through sexual contact for incidents that allegedly happened at the trailer. He was, however, found guilty of a third count of sexual assault against that same victim. 
     As the foreman read each of the guilty counts for what Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Gregory J. Schweers called "an appropriate verdict," Schumann gazed straight ahead, occasionally closing his eyes slightly. His father, Otto, the only one who sat in the audience, rubbed his hands gently and stared downward. 
     "I can honestly look you in the eye and say I'm innocent," Schumann said during the deliberations. "A guilty person wouldn't be able to do that. I'm guilty of being a nice guy and trying to help some people out." 
     Schumann came to baby-sit the boys because he was friendly with each of the parents. Calling the guilty verdict a "travesty of justice," he said he would appeal. 
     During closing arguments, defense attorney John Sitzler of Mount Holly argued that the allegations were the result of a vendetta of the father of the main victim because he was angry that Schumann evicted the two from their trailer home after Schumann was not repaid a $l,000.00 loan. 
     Repeatedly using a metaphor of a train, Sitzler offered inconsistencies in the boy's testimonies concerning dates an the number of times incidents allegedly occurred as evidence of the "railroading of Bob Schumann." 
     Schweers, however, contended that young children could not be held accountable for elements of time. 
     "There is no railroad in this case," he said to the jury. "There is no train. There is only a car and it belongs to Robert Schumann and he used it to drive these boys to his house for sex. They are telling you the truth the best they can. There were inconsistencies but what they were saying was substantially true. It is what they had been saying all along and they should be believed." 
     Schumann was released on $75,000 bail and is under house arrest by Judge Ira E. Kreizmann. He must have no contact with juveniles until his sentence date October 27, 1995.

More on Schumann

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