Concerned your child is chatting with a sex offender? There’s a new tool to help you check.
A new function on the Electronic Sex Offender Registration and Notification (eSORN) Database will allow parents to input phone numbers, email addresses, social media screen names and video game handles to check if they are linked to a registered sex offender, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced at a news conference Thursday.
If the information is linked to a registered sex offender, a screen will advise parents to contact the local sheriff’s office or the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, DeWine said. Specific information about the sex offender will not be listed, according to a news release from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
From there, deputies can investigate whether sex offenders have violated the law by contacting children, DeWine said.
Sheriffs in Ohio’s 88 counties already collect detailed information about registered sex offenders, but now it will be available for the public to check.
“Our communication capabilities are better than ever before. We can talk on our smart phones, we can email people, we can post pictures and share our experiences through social media. But it’s that kind of access that can open the door for predators to have access to our children,” DeWine said.
Ohio joins seven other states that allow residents to investigate whether sex offenders are contacting their children electronically. The eSORN database contains nearly 18,000 people required to register as sex offenders after convictions for offenses from soliciting sex to rape.
A friend of ours mother worked in a nursing home and she said many of the people in these places have very serious mental problems, some walk up and down the hall all day screaming "Come here, Come here, Come here," to nobody at all. Attacks of all kinds happen all the time, and many patients walk out the front doors to roam the streets. The people in these places are sick, mentally and physically, this happens all the time, it's nothing new, and something a law won't fix.
02/08/2014
By Tom Meyer
If you have a loved one in a nursing home, they may be living under the same roof as a sex offender -- and have no idea that they do.
An exclusive Channel 3 investigation found 29 sex offenders living in 16 nursing homes in Northeast Ohio. Two of those nursing homes -- one in a small village in Summit County -- had up to four convicted sex offenders living in them.
"You would not want to live in a nursing home or have a loved one live in a nursing home with a registered sex offender," says Mike DeWine, Ohio's attorney general. But many people do, and a loophole in Ohio law means they don't have to be, and aren't, notified.
While the law requires that neighbors of sex offenders are notified by their local sheriff's office when such a felon moves onto their street, the law does not require similar notification for those who actually share the same address.
"It is a well-intended law. It works many times, but there are certainly some holes in it," DeWine says.
The presence of sex offenders in nursing homes is something that occurs in urban, rural and suburban areas.
Kathy and Romolo DeBottis of Sheffield Lake had no inkling that three sex offenders listed the Good Samaritan Nursing Home in Avon as their home. Kathy's father had lived at that nursing home until recently.
"I feel we were deceived," says Kathy.
Her husband agrees, saying sex offenders "shouldn't be in the mainstream population. If they're in a nursing home, they should be in a separate wing."
In Peninsula in Summit County, four sex offenders listed Wayside Farms as their nursing home. In Cleveland, four sex offenders called University Manor on Ambleside their home.
That was news to a young resident there.
"I should know," said the woman, who is confined to a wheelchair. "I'm a female and can't do anything."
One of the sex offenders in this facility sexually attacked a resident in another nursing home before moving into this one.
We tried, in person, to talk to administrators of University Manor and Rudwick Manor, a nursing home in East Cleveland that houses three sex offenders, but we were told to leave. One of the three offenders at Rudwick Manor had committed a sexual crime against his home health care worker before he moved in to this facility.
We left phone messages for the administrators, as well as for the administrators of the Wayside Manor and Good Samaritan nursing homes but received no return calls.
Sondra Miller, president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, points to the fact that 75 percent of sex crimes against people older than 65 occur in nursing homes.
She knows of one couple that was married for 40 years when the husband had to put his severely disabled wife into a nursing home. A few months later, she was sexually attacked by a fellow resident. Her husband was devastated and guilt-ridden -- and neither he nor his wife had any idea she was at risk.
"I'm very concerned, because we know sexual predators prey on people they perceive as most vulnerable," Miller says, noting that sexual offenders are often repeat offenders.
Debora Smith's job is to care for those who are vulnerable -- she is a state-tested nurses' aide. It is the people in her profession who provide much of the hands-on care in nursing homes.
Until several weeks ago, she worked at University Manor -- and was never notified that any sexual offenders lived there at the time.
She and other employees should have been told, she says: "So people can be aware of who they're dealing with and know how to approach them."
Some families say they want and need to know if a sex offender lives in the home where their loved one does.
As Romolo DeBottis points out, "It's a disease that never goes away."
And his wife adds, "They'll always have that urge."
Ohio Rep. Tom Letson, who lives in Warren, is the co-sponsor of a bill that would change the law so that residents of long-term care facilities are notified of offenders in their midst.
He was spurred to the legislation because he and his family live two doors away from a nursing home. While they got a postcard telling them a sexual offender had moved in there, no one working or living at the nursing home was notified.
One of the employees there told him, "You got the notice but the people living down the hall from him didn't."
Letson put it this way: "The people who live in the building have the same right to know as the people who live in a house 40 feet away."
He said he is hopeful that his colleagues will vote for the bill's passage. Similar legislation has passed the House before, but not the Ohio Senate.
GILBOA - A fire inside a camper where a man facing a 46-count indictment including child sex crimes lived has been ruled arson, but authorities have no suspects.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office has closed the investigation into the fire unless additional information surfaces, said Michael Duchesne, a spokesman for the agency.
The fire happened Dec. 21 inside a camper. Someone placed a large amount of clothing and combustible materials in the middle of the camper and set it on fire, Duchesne said.
The fire occurred the day after _____ was arraigned on criminal charges.
_____ is charged with four counts of endangering children, one count of compulsion to involuntary servitude, two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, six counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and 33 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 90.5 years in prison.
Two counts involve the same child and the other charges are for other children, a prosecutor said.
_____ is a registered sex offender for crimes in Florida in 2001 and 2006. Those crimes included committing or simulating sexual acts with or in the presence of a child under the age of 16 in a lewd, lascivious or indecent manner by an adult.
_____ is not the owner of the camper. The owner is _____, Duchesne said.
Anyone with information on the fire, including seeing something or hearing someone speak about the fire with an unusual level of interest or knowledge, should contact the State Fire Marshal’s Office at 800-589-2728.
Ohio has about 250 former prisoners — two-thirds of them sex offenders — who are homeless but still under state parole-authority supervision.
The lack of address hampers compliance with laws designed to keep officials and the public informed about where sex offenders live.
Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said that while the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction works to find places for offenders to live when they are released, that’s not always possible, particularly with sex offenders who are notoriously hard to house.
One of them is _____ of Franklin County, who will be homeless when he is scheduled to get out of prison on Feb. 16. Officially, _____’s address will be 53 E. Main St., 2nd floor, Logan, Ohio — the Adult Parole Authority office.
_____, 41, spent more than nine years in prison for three felony counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of abduction involving a teenage girl.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said he was surprised to receive notice about the upcoming release of _____ — whose victim was a relative — without anywhere to track him.
“He is subject to registration upon release, and even though he is being released to Hocking County, the purpose of Megan’s Law and the Adam Walsh Act is to know where sex offenders reside,” O’Brien told The Dispatch.
“A release by the parole board in either a post-release control or to parole (someone) ... to (a parole) office doesn't accomplish that purpose. I always understood a parole plan contemplated a known residence, but apparently that is no longer the case.”
_____’s is not an isolated case.
Smith said when an inmate’s sentence expires, the state cannot keep him locked up, even if he has no place to go. The agency works cooperatively with local law-enforcement officials to keep track of released offenders, she said. They are required to report regularly to their parole officer as long as they are under state-mandated supervision, which can last several years.
David Berenson, the prison agency’s director of Sex Offender Services, said housing for released sex offenders is “a huge problem in every state. Researchers are looking into it, at what might be more effective laws. But there’s really nothing substantial. A lot of them are homeless because they've burned every bridge.”
State statistics show that just 11 percent of released sex offenders return to prison on sex charges, compared with the overall recidivism rate of 28.7 percent in Ohio.
Columbus victim advocate Brett Vinocur, who tracks released offenders and inmates up for parole, said homeless sex offenders are common.
“The system failed the citizens of Ohio,” he said. “These guys are just being dumped, putting sex offenders on the streets. I've seen them living under the bridge, living on the side of the road.”
But Vinocur does not blame state prison officials for the problem. Instead, he lays it at the doorstep of state legislators who changed state laws in 1996 to eliminate indefinite prison sentences in favor of flat sentences, in the process reducing time served for a variety of crimes, including sex offenses.
Video Description: Last November I spoke in front of the Dayton Municipal courthouse regarding the manipulative way area courts use misdemeanor status to avoid recognizing the due process rights of accused men facing serious penalty.
This was my first public speech. It's not something I would normally choose to do, but the subject and the case were important enough to ignore the nervousness (and lack of chances to practice the speech I wrote) and do it anyway. In the end, I'm glad I did. you can't see it in the video, but people walking by stopped to listen. That was very encouraging.
MONTGOMERY - There may be sexual predators sleeping in the home next door to your children because of a loophole in the sex offender registration laws.
Blaine Hoffman and his family have been living in Kettering for more than a decade. Their neighborhood is quiet, family-friendly, and until spring of this year sex offender-free.
"That's how we found out. The sheriff's officer was parked outside of our house updating the registration address. Otherwise we wouldn't have known," Hoffman said.
A sex offender had moved in with his girlfriend, right across the street.
"For a father and a husband, it's very concerning," Hoffman added.
Records show the offender registered his girlfriend's address as his primary residence, but only at first. Following pressure from the neighborhood watch for him to move out, he did, sort of. He registered a different primary address with the sheriff's office. But Hoffman says the guy was still spending a whole lot of time at his girlfriend's house, which was then considered by authorities to be a secondary address, which means it's not searchable online.
"The detective said that as long as he notifies them that this is an address where he can be found, there's nothing we can do," Hoffman said.
"The secondary addresses are not published online. However, if a person has a concern, all they have to do is contact us at the sheriff's office," said Montgomery County Sheriff's Sgt. Julie Stephens.
The sheriff's office says offenders can have secondary addresses in any neighborhood. However, they aren't required to give deputies those secondary addresses. But it is highly encouraged.
"If they're there three or more nights a week, we're going to want that as a secondary address," Stephens said.
But in order for you to find out if a sex offender has a secondary address in your neighborhood you'll have to call the sheriff's office. A secondary address won't come up in the sex offender registry online search.
"If they have a concern about their safety they definitely need to call us and let us follow up on it and figure out if that's a place that the person hasn't told us about it or if it's a place where that person doesn't need to be," Stephens said.
"I get that they have cousins and friends that they could be hanging out with. But we're talking about people that are staying weeks on end and for all intents and purposes residing there. That's alarming," said Hoffman.
In an attempt to prevent offenders from skirting the law, sheriff's deputies periodically check up on them. They even inspect the offender's home to make sure they have clothes and toiletries inside, basically searching for evidence that the registered primary address is legitimate.
However, law enforcement officers admit, they need the public's help, and encourage you to give them a call if you suspect an offender is lying about where he lives.
People need to learn that if the police don't have a search warrant and the person is not on probation / parole, then the police have no right coming into your home. DO NOT LET THEM IN FOR ANY REASON, even if you have done nothing wrong, it's your right!
All they need to see is your license and possible a rent stub or similar to prove you live there and nothing more, and DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING!
You can ask a lawyer and I am sure they will tell you the same thing, but, I am not a legal expert.
You will also notice they use PINK slips just like the Nazi's did during Hitler's reign.
Rumors of razor blades in apples, children walking by themselves on busy streets at night, strangers wearing masks - Halloween festivities can conjure up a parent's worst nightmares.
For the second year, Girard is hoping to eliminate some perceived risks by preventing registered sexual offenders from participating in the activities, but whether the ordinance will be effective in preventing reoffense has yet to be seen.
The Girard ordinance prohibits registered sex offenders from using exterior lights on their homes and opening their doors to trick-or-treaters on city designated trick-or-treat days. They are also forbidden from decorating their homes and yard for Halloween.
"The following regulations impose reasonable time, place and manner regulations and are rationally related to the advance the city's interest in protecting children and the general public," the ordinance reads.
"Obviously we can't do enough to protect our children," Girard Mayor James Melfi said. "We're taking that step to show people we are thinking. It sets the stage for more awareness."
Similar ordinances have been passed in municipalities across the nation, several weeks ago in nearby Orwell and several years ago in multiple Texas cities. Last year, Simi Valley, Calif., passed an ordinance similar to Girard's but with the additional mandate that offenders post a sign in their yards announcing that no candy will be passed out at their residence.
Fact Box
Most common Halloween violations:
Theft - 32%
Destruction or vandalism - 21%
Assault - 19%
Burglary - 9%
Sex crimes - 1%
Source: Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research and Treatment
The city was sued for encroaching on offenders' freedom of speech (Wikipedia) and ordered to remove the sign requirement.
Janice Bellucci, an attorney and president of the California Reform Sex Offender Laws group, led the lawsuit on behalf of the offenders. RSOL has state chapters across the country including one in Ohio. Bellucci said there is a common misconception nationwide that "once a sex offender, always a sex offender." She said, however, according to a study by the Department of Justice only 5.3 percent of offenders were found to recommit sex crimes within three years after being released from prison.
The study followed about 9,700 sex offenders, about 4,300 of whom were child molesters. Because of the low rate of reoffense, Bellucci said she believes the extra Halloween regulations are not effective and actually impose on the offenders' First Amendment rights.
Girard Law Director Brian Kren said the local ordinance was drafted to be "as respectful of peoples' rights as possible" even in the "limited circumstance" that offenders may attract children to their homes.
There are "no significant increases in sex crimes on or around Halloween," according to a study prepared for Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research and Treatment. The study lead by Lynn University Associate Professor Jill Levenson Ph.D. drew conclusions by analyzing more than 67,000 non-familial sex crimes against children ages 12 and under. The study also concluded that any Halloween policies adopted during the 1997 to 2005 time period "appear not to have impacted the overall offense rate."
"You need to look at who it is that commits the crimes," Bellucci said, "93 percent of people who commit the crimes are not on the register. They are family members, teachers, members of the clergy, coaches and unfortunately in this time Boy Scouts leaders."
She said the Halloween ordinances are missing the target.
"In some cases these regulations give people a false sense of security. They think 'Oh, I am going to let my kids go out on their own.'"
When her children were young enough to trick-or-treat, she said she always made sure they were accompanied out of fear they might get hit by vehicles on the road. That is a well-placed fear, according to the CDC, since children are four times more likely to be killed in a vehicle accident on Halloween night.
Nevertheless, Melfi said Girard will uphold its ordinance even if it had never had a past incident in the city - home to six registered sex offenders.
"We're not taking that chance. That is her concern defending her clients as an attorney, ours is keeping our children safe," he said. "I don't think it's done anything at this time, but it's made an awareness."
Remember, this is probably only for those on probation or parole, since they cannot enforce this for those off supervision, but, if you have questions, talk to the local sheriff, we could be wrong.
10/19/2013
Orwell's village council members passed an ordinance this week that will prohibit registered sex offenders from celebrating Halloween.
Village Manager Jack Nettis said council’s decision was unanimous. The ordinance will go into effect immediately, just in time for this year’s holiday. - Even though a child has never been harmed sexually on the holiday, except maybe due to running into the street or a drunk driver. It's the usual yearly scare-mongering!
Nettis said council took its time passing the ordinance to consider any possible ramifications. The measure was tabled last month as council members had some questions that could not be immediately answered.
Nettis said it also gave the public an opportunity to voice any opinions or concerns; however, the village did not receive any public feedback.
“No one made any comments,” he said.
The purpose of the legislation, as stated in the ordinance, is to “protect children from the dangers posed by sex offenders convicted of offenses against minors.” - It's a non-existent problem! Just political fodder for politicians to exploit to make themselves look "tough!"
The ordinance requires any sex offenders to abide by certain restrictions between the hours of midnight and 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 31 and/or any other night that might be designated as Halloween by the village.
Sex offenders are required to leave all exterior residential, decorative and ornamental lighting off during the evening hours, beginning at 4 p.m. until midnight; refrain from decorating his or her front yard and exterior of the residence with Halloween decorations; and refrain from answering the door to children who are trick-or-treating, according to the ordinance.
If the ordinance is violated, the person will be charged with a misdemeanor, according to the ordinance.
YOUNGSTOWN (AP) - An Ohio appeals court (PDF) has upheld a convicted sex offender's right to live within 1,000 feet of a school, saying a law creating that geographic limit cannot be applied retroactively.
The Belmont County prosecutor argued the ban should apply to _____ because he hadn't been living at the property in Shadyside in eastern Ohio all along, but only moved in after the ban became law in 2003.
Ohio's 7th District Court of Appeals ruled late last month that previous court rulings in Ohio make it clear the 2003 ban doesn't apply to people convicted before that year, regardless of how long they've lived within the 1,000 foot limit.
_____ was convicted of compelling prostitution in 2001 and finished a 10-year obligation to report to authorities annually last year.
NEWARK — While an independent psychological evaluation concluded a 13-year-old who raped a 4-year-old girl is amenable to rehabilitation in the community, a magistrate placed him with the Department of Youth Services for at least a year.
The teenage boy was adjudicated delinquent of felony rape and gross sexual imposition by Magistrate Christopher Strefelt in November. Since then, the boy has spent more than 40 days in the multi-county juvenile detention facility.
The teen was found guilty in Licking County Juvenile Court of the first- and third-degree felonies involving incidents with a 4-year-old girl that occurred between June 21 and July 15.
But before sentencing him, Strefelt ordered the boy to undergo a sex offender assessment. The teen’s family also paid for an independent evaluation to explore alternate placement to Ohio Department of Youth Services.
After Columbus psychologist William Friday testified his evaluation concluded the teen could most likely be rehabilitated in the community, Strefelt sentenced the teen to a minimum of one year of incarceration on the rape count and a six-month minimum term on the gross sexual imposition charge.
The evaluation completed by Friday included three sessions with the teen and interviews with numerous adults who have contact with him.
“I believe he is able to be treated within the community,” Friday testified. “He’s reasonably safe in the community, and I’m reasonably sure he wouldn’t re-offend.”
He said the 27 primary issues for someone convicted of sexual abuse were evaluated and the teen didn’t show signs of re-offending.
Eric Yavitch, the boy’s attorney, also argued the teen would pose minimum risks if counseled in the community.
Even though Strefelt found the teen guilty, he has not yet admitted his actions.
The mother of the victim said she just wants the teen to admit what he did and get help.
The teen is appealing Strefelt’s findings. He did not speak on his own behalf before being sentenced.
The teen was ordered not to have contact with the victim or her family.
Judge Robert Hoover said previously this type of mental evaluation is ordered in almost all of the juvenile cases involving sex offenses.
