Former reality star Tony McCollister pleaded guilty to bestiality and sex-content charges while still facing trial over the alleged rape of a five-year-old in Ohio.
The Daily Caller reported that McCollister entered guilty pleas on Sept. 28 to 13 counts involving sexual content and four counts of sexual conduct with an animal.
He still faces a separate slate of child-sex charges tied to allegations in Ohio, with those counts set for a bench trial. The remaining case is the core of what comes next.
McCollister first drew public notice in 2015 on A&E’s “Neighbors with Benefits,” a short-lived series about swingers that aired with his wife and was canceled after two episodes. A decade later, his name is back in the news for criminal pleas and pending child-rape counts, not reality television.
People magazine’s reporting, carried in the Daily Caller account, said McCollister still faces four counts of rape, five counts of gross sexual imposition, three counts of endangering children, and one count of corrupting another with drugs.
Those charges stem from allegations he was involved in drugging and raping a five-year-old child in Ohio. He was arrested in December. The guilty pleas cover the sexual-content and animal-conduct counts; the child-related charges remain for the bench trial.
Earlier court documents, described by WLWT and relayed in the same coverage, alleged that McCollister uploaded child sexual abuse imagery and engaged in sexual conduct with two dogs he owned. The animal counts match the four bestiality-related pleas already entered.
No sentencing date for the Sept. 28 pleas was detailed in the available reporting. No plea-deal terms, dismissed counts, or full statutory labels for the “sexual content” charges were spelled out either.
Erica Grove, a woman McCollister had a relationship with at the time, went first. In September, she was found guilty of two counts of gross sexual imposition and two counts of endangering children.
Judge Robert Peeler found her not guilty of four counts of rape and one count of corrupting another with drugs, WLWT reported. Oxygen True Crime noted McCollister was standing trial on the alleged rape and drugging of a young child less than a week after Grove’s verdict.
People framed the Sept. 28 pleas bluntly in a social post the same week the coverage moved: McCollister had pleaded guilty to bestiality while still facing child rape charges. The sequence is straightforward. Grove’s mixed verdict came in September. His animal and sexual-content pleas followed on Sept. 28. The child-rape counts remain.
“Neighbors with Benefits” sold viewers a lifestyle show about swinging couples. It drew backlash and died after two episodes in 2015. McCollister’s public story after that arrest is no longer entertainment copy. It is a charging list, a guilty plea sheet, and a pending bench trial on counts that include rape and endangering children.
The reporting does not name a specific Ohio city or courthouse for the pleas or the coming trial. It does not publish docket numbers, full statute citations, or a sentencing calendar. What it does establish is the plea tally, the pending charge list, the five-year-old victim alleged in the open counts, the two dogs named in the earlier animal-conduct allegations, Grove’s split outcome before Judge Peeler, and the bench-trial path still ahead.
Child rape and child sexual abuse imagery cases belong in open court with full evidence, sworn testimony, and a complete record, not in sealed silence or soft-pedaled headlines. Bestiality pleas do not erase the counts that still name a five-year-old.
When a former reality figure admits sexual conduct with animals and still must answer rape and child-endangering charges, the system’s job is simple: finish the trial, weigh the proof, and impose lawful judgment without fear or favor.
