ELYRIA — The scattershot response of the county’s judges to a new sex offender law that requires more community notification in potentially hundreds of sex offender cases may be coming to an end.

The judges are considering adopting a universal order that will stay the new notification requirements while they — and judges around the state — wrestle with constitutional and other questions the new law has raised about the retroactive sanctions, increased reporting times and expanded community notification requirements.

The new law, known as Adam’s Law after 6-year-old Adam Walsh, who was abducted and killed in 1981, was designed to standardize the requirements for sex offenders across the country. Each state must adopt the same three-tiered system by 2009 or risk losing federal money.

The Ohio Legislature adopted the law last year, but the sticking point has been that it lengthens the time during which sex offenders must register with the county sheriff’s office — prompting some sex offenders to protest their new classifications, which in some cases mean they’ll have to register every 90 days for the rest of their lives.

So far, the response to challenges filed by sex offenders living in the county by the judges has been varied.

Judge Edward Zaleski has denied every one he’s seen because none has been completed in the right way.

Judge Christopher Rothgery has denied any motions — some of which sex offenders prepared themselves — that weren’t done properly and set hearing dates for the ones that were prepared correctly.

Judges Mark Betleski, James Burge and James Miraldi all have granted temporary restraining orders preventing notification, in some cases whether an offender has asked for one or not.

Judge Raymond Ewers has granted one restraining order, but is waiting until the judges as a group decide how best to handle the matter before he makes any further rulings.

Court Administrator Tim Lubbe said the judges are seriously considering issuing an order that would prevent new notifications — sex offenders who were subject to community notification under the old law would still face the same requirement — until all the issues have been dealt with.

The plan is to base the judges’ blanket order off a similar order issued by Stark County’s judges.The concern is that once notification has taken place, there’s no way to withdraw it, Lubbe said.

“We’re trying to figure out what’s the minimum we can do to make sure this genie doesn’t get out of the bottle while we fix this,” Lubbe said.

Miraldi said he supports putting a stay in place while the other issues, which are expected to eventually reach the Ohio Supreme Court, are dealt with.

“Right now there’s so many questions about this statute, it seemed it was best to preserve the status quo,” Miraldi said.

Others aren’t convinced. Rothgery said he’s not sure such an order would be legal.

“There are questions that are going to arise because each case is different,” Rothgery said. “… We’re dealing with different people with different filings with different concerns and different issues.”

County Prosecutor Dennis Will and his staff have been responding to each case — including asking judges who have granted restraining orders to lift them — that has been filed by a sex offender so far.

He said his office is reviewing the possibility of a stay, but only for those sex offenders who challenge their reclassification in the courts.

“We’re just trying to play it by ear,” he said. “If the court issues a blanket stay, we’ll be prepared to deal with that.”

Zaleski said the sheer number of cases — there are about 1,200 sex offenders living in the county or at one of the prisons in Grafton who could potentially file challenges — presents a logistical nightmare.

The judges have asked the Ohio Supreme Court to assign a visiting judge to deal with all the challenges as they come in.

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

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