ELYRIA — A new state law that took effect at the beginning of the year will make being a sex offendesr a lot more difficult – for both the offenders and those who have to keep track of them.

The new law, passed by the state last year after the federal government threatened to cut funding if the law wasn’t bolstered, will increase the length of time during which sex offenders must register with the county sheriff’s office.

Lorain County officials are gearing up for a massive influx of civil challenges to the law that inmates will have to file to contest their new classifications, which in some cases will mean offenders have to report every 90 days for the rest of their lives.

“It’s lifetime probation,” Elyria defense attorney Kenneth Lieux said.

What’s changed

The new law — known as Adam’s Law after Adam Walsh, a 6-year-old Florida boy who was abducted and killed in 1981 — replaces the older Megan’s Law, which first mandated that sex offenders must register with local sheriffs.

Under the old law in Ohio, there were eight classifications ranging from a 10-year reporting requirement as a sexually oriented offender to the lifetime reporting requirements for more serious sexual predators.

The idea behind the change, said state Rep. Matt Barrett, D-Amherst, who voted for it, was to make every state have the same standards. Before, every state had different sex offender laws, which made getting people to register when they moved difficult, said Barrett, who is also an attorney.

“Offenders were able to get around the law,” he said.

Adam’s Law requires that each state have the same three-tiered system in place by 2009 or risk losing federal money. By putting the law into effect in 2008, Ohio will get extra federal money, Barrett said.

“It protects Ohio’s children even more, and secondly we had both a carrot and a stick from the federal government,” he said.

Ohio Attorney General spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi said the change will make the registration of the nation’s about 600,000 registered sexual offenders uniform and prevent some of those who should be registering from slipping through the cracks.

“Obviously there’s a problem there if we can’t keep track of the offenders,” Brindisi said.

And that has happened.

For example, Rafael Rios was indicted late last year after he was accused of raping a 10-year-old girl in Lorain County. Rios was supposed to register as a sex offender after he left a New York prison where he served time for molesting a 7-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl in the early 1990s, but he never did.

Retroactive punishment?

The new law might be fine, critics say, if it was just for crimes committed after it went into effect. The problem, they believe, is that the law requires every currently registered sex offender to be reclassified.

That means even people who had only a few years or months left to report will suddenly face the prospect of having to register for longer periods of time, including some who must not only register for life under the new law, but who also will find themselves subject to community notification requirements.

Lieux, the Elyria attorney, said he’s had offenders with clean records during their registrations period break down in tears while seeking legal advice about the change.

“They plead seven years ago and were told the consequences, now (the consequences are) changing,” he said. “All of a sudden, they’re being told they’re a predator.”

Paul St. Marie, another Elyria attorney, said he’s talked to a lot of desperate people who made a single mistake only to find out they now will spend the rest of their lives paying for it.

“Obviously, most of them are very upset,” St. Marie said. “The majority of them appear close to finishing their reporting periods.”

County Common Pleas Judge James Burge, a former defense attorney, said he plans to stay community notification requirements for those whose appeals of the change end up before him. He also expects that some defendants who took plea bargains that included a shorter registration period will try to withdraw their pleas.

“They want the benefit of (the plea),” Burge said.

Lieux said he expects there to be serious constitutional challenges mounted to what he sees as unfairly punishing people retroactively. But those challenges will go before the Ohio Supreme Court, which already has thrown out efforts by the Ohio Public Defenders Office and others to declare the retroactive sanctions unconstitutional.

Judicial discretion

Another problem that Burge and other judges see is that the new law effectively takes away their discretion to impose classifications on offenders. For instance, under Adam’s Law, a rape is always classified as a Tier 3 offense, which means the offender must register for life, no matter what the case’s circumstances.

St. Marie said the facts of a case are as vital to deciding what category an offender should be placed in as they are to whether the convict goes to prison or receives probation.

“It doesn’t take into consideration the circumstances of the crime, which I think makes a huge difference,” St. Marie said.

Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery, also a former defense attorney, said he will follow the new law, but he agreed that it removes his ability to evaluate each case on its merits.

“I’m never really thrilled with any law that removes judicial discretion,” Rothgery said. “And I haven’t seen anything showing the old law wasn’t working.”

Impact on sex offenders

“John,” a 49-year-old sexually oriented offender convicted of rape in 1993, said he spent nearly eight years in prison and has registered faithfully every year since his release. He said he’s remarried, gotten a steady job and has even let his neighbors know about his criminal past – although he still denies that he touched the young woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her.

The last time “John,” who agreed to talk with The Chronicle on condition his name not be used, was in court was 15 years ago, he said.

He doesn’t oppose forcing sex offenders to register, but he believes it should be done on a case-by-case basis.

“They really need to look into each person’s case individually like when a judge sentences people,” he said.

“John” had only four years left on his 10-year reporting requirement when he received a letter from the state late last year informing him that he would now have to register every 90 days for the rest of his life.

He said he will end up suing the state to contest his status change – the only avenue the new law gives offenders to challenge their new classifications.

“I’m going to fight it to the end because it’s really, really unfair,” he said.

The paperwork

Keeping track of the county’s about 600 sex offenders isn’t an easy task, Sheriff’s Lt. Clinton Kendricks said.

Not only do the offenders have to come to the county jail to register, deputies must visit each home to make sure the offenders are living where they say.

“We try to verify the address because they’re criminals and sometimes they lie to you,” Kendricks said.

Sheriff’s Capt. James Drozdowski said deputies plan to try to keep on top of the new reporting standards and the additional work, but whether they’ll have enough manpower to do so remains to be seen. It’s a situation he said county Sheriff Phil Stammitti is watching closely.

“I’m not sure if we need to hire more (staff),” Drozdowski said.

The sheriff’s office isn’t the only county department that will see extra work generated by the new law.

The judges, County Prosecutor Dennis Will and Clerk of Courts Ron Nabakowski all are gearing up for a massive influx of challenges to the reclassifications from offenders.

The clerk’s office already has received more than 50 lawsuits from offenders. Coupled with the large number of foreclosures in the county, that means the backlog of work his deputy clerks have to catch up on will only get bigger, he said.

“It’s really screwing things up. We’re already overwhelmed with foreclosures,” Nabakowski said.

What will make things even worse in Lorain County, officials say, is the presence of three prisons, which according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction house more than 600 sex offenders.

Because the challenges have to be filed in the county of residence, those offenders will have to file in Lorain County.

The bottom line

Those who favor the change say it will make the streets safer for law-abiding citizens and potential victims of sex offenders. Barrett said he thinks the law is fair to everyone, including sex offenders.

“It strikes a fair balance,” he said.

Judge Burge, on the other hand, said he doesn’t believe the law will do much to protect the public.

“It’s a useless law because in my experience, 99 percent of the sex abuse cases occur at the hands of someone to whom the parent or parents have entrusted a child,” he said. “Very seldom is the perpetrator a stranger who would abuse children who are strangers.”

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

 

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