ELYRIA — Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen will soon be off the list of registered sex offenders.

Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge last month acquitted the pair of charges they molested 4- and 5-year-old children on Smith’s Head Start bus route in the early 1990s. And on Thursday he issued an order to remove them from the list.

Although Smith and Allen, who served 14½ years in prison after being convicted in their controversial 1994 trial, were cleared by Burge of the charges, county sheriff’s officials said they couldn’t be removed from the list without a court order.

Burge said he received a request to remove Smith, 52, from the list from her attorney, Jack Bradley, and did so. He also removed Allen, 56.

County Prosecutor Dennis Will said given the current status of the case, his office wouldn’t fight that decision. He said he is still reviewing whether he will appeal Burge’s decision to acquit Smith and Allen.

Burge said during a hearing last month that he had originally planned only to resentence Smith and Allen because of an error in the sentencing entries that sent Smith to prison for 30 to 90 years and imposed five life sentences on Allen.

But after reviewing the trial transcript and other evidence in the case, the judge said he became convinced that Allen and Smith, who have always maintained their innocence, were wrongly convicted.

Burge ordered Smith freed on bond in February. Allen was released in April and required to register as a sex offender. Once Allen registered, Smith was required to do so as well.

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

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