OH - New search allows check for sex offender email, phone numbers

Original Article

07/04/2014

By Jessie Balmert



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.

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OH - Officer (John Daniel Kamphaus) tried to lure minor online

John Kamphaus

Original Article

04/23/2014

By Jennifer Edwards Baker

A Hamilton County corrections officer is locked up at the Kenton County jail on a charge of using a computer to lure a minor.

John Daniel Kamphaus, 40, was arrested at 1:30 a.m. when he traveled to Mills Road Park in Independence.

That's where he arranged to meet a 15-year-old girl he had been chatting with online for sex, said Kenton County Police Chief Brian Capps.

"He believed he was chatting with a 15-year-old Independence teenager when, in fact, it was one of our officers," the police chief said.

Kamphaus was booked into the jail about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday on a charge of prohibited use of a electronic communication system to procure a minor in reference to a sex offense, jail records show.

He briefly appeared Wednesday morning before a Kenton County judge, who set his bond at $2,500.

Kamphaus has been employed at the Hamilton County Sherif's Office nearly 20 years, since January 1996, said Michael Robison, agency spokesman.

"Per our policies, effective immediately Officer Kamphaus is placed on unpaid administrative leave pending an investigation by internal affairs," Robison said. "The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office is fully cooperating with the Kenton County Police Department."

Kamphaus' personnel file will not be released to the Enquirer for review until next week.

"... .pursuant to their standing labor contract, we are required to notify him five days prior to releasing his file," Robison said.

OH - Law would mandate sex-offender alerts at nursing homes

Original Article

04/06/2014

By Encarnacion Pyle

State lawmakers want to close a loophole that requires neighbors to be notified when a registered sex offender moves into a nursing home but not the people who live there or their families.

“As it stands now, if I live next to a nursing home, I’m going to be notified if a sex offender moves in. But if I’m in the room with a sex offender, I probably won’t know it,” said Beverley Laubert, the state’s long-term-care ombudsman with the Ohio Department of Aging.

Current law requires notification of anyone living within 1,000 feet of a sex offender. However, it does not require nursing-home administrators to notify residents, family members or guardians.

Legislation in Gov. John Kasich’s mid-biennium budget review would require administrators of nursing homes and assisted-living centers to check the names of all prospective residents against the state’s electronic sex-offender registry.

They also would be required to assess the potential risks of admitting that person and to create a plan if they do that includes information about how they would provide a safe environment for everyone, including the offender.

The administrators would then have to tell the other residents and their family members or guardians that a sex offender had moved in and describe the plan to protect them. They also would be required to help sex offenders change their addresses with the local sheriff’s office if they haven’t done so themselves.

“We’re simply trying to correct an unintended consequence of the original law. It’s that simple,” said Bonnie Burman, director of the Department of Aging.

The new requirements are part of a larger bill that could go to the House for a vote this week. Ohio lawmakers have tried several times to change state law so that nursing-home residents are notified when a registered sex offender moves in, but those efforts have failed.

Nationwide, 14 states have enacted laws related to sex offenders in long-term-care facilities, but only five of them require that other residents be notified.

“I think it would be a good first step,” state Sen. Capri Cafaro said. “Anything that promotes better protection of the frail and vulnerable older adults in our state is worth pursuing.”

In 2010, Cafaro, a Democrat from Hubbard in northeastern Ohio, introduced a provision aimed at identifying when the most-serious offenders intended to move into a facility. That bill included a measure to fine facilities $100 a day per violation if they didn’t comply.

A Dispatch investigation at the time found that 110 nursing-home residents and six employees statewide were registered sex offenders. Fifty-one were concentrated in four nursing homes, including 26 at Carlton Manor in Washington Court House. That one closed this year after the Ohio Department of Health revoked its license because of failed inspections and a history of problems.

While admirable in concept, the law might prove to be a difficult balancing act, said Jane Straker, a senior researcher at the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University.

“Who doesn’t want to take care of frail, older adults if we perceive that they might be in danger? But sex offenders can also be frail, older adults in need of help,” she said. “It’s a huge dilemma, and I don’t know the answer.”

Straker said research hasn't been able to show a link between resident abuse and registered sex offenders in long-term care. And predicting which residents are likely to abuse others has been problematic.

Some people worry that notification would create unnecessary fear among the other residents and their families.

“If you ship out a notice that you've just admitted a sex offender, a mass exodus will probably ensue, and no one wants that,” said Peter Van Runkle, the executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, a nursing-home industry group.

To prevent that from happening, he predicts that most nursing homes would simply say they don’t have the staff and other resources to meet a sex offender’s needs.

And if a nursing home did accept a registered sex offender, “would it become a scarlet letter?” asked Steve Wermuth, interim president and CEO of LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit nursing homes.

But state officials said those fears are unfounded.

When it has been previously revealed that a sex offender has lived at a nursing home, “nothing awful has happened,” said Laubert, the state’s ombudsman.

OH - Jury finds veteran Cleveland police officer (Gregory Jones) guilty of 2012 rape

Gregory Jones

Original Article

04/02/2014

By Rachel Dissell

CLEVELAND - A jury today found veteran Cleveland police officer Gregory Jones guilty of raping and kidnapping a woman in 2012.

Jones, 49, faced multiple charges of rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition involving two separate women.

After trial that lasted more than a week in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Gall's courtroom, a jury deliberated for about two days before reaching a verdict.

They found Jones not guilty of a rape reported by a separate woman in 2008.

Gall ordered Jones taken into custody and set his sentencing for April 30.

"The jury saw Greg Jones for what he is – a predator who victimized a helpless, vulnerable woman," Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Jesse Canonico said after in an email after the verdict was announced. "He was a rapist masquerading as a police officer, but this jury saw through the disguise and held him accountable for what he did."

An officer of more than 20 years, Jones maintained his innocence and testified that he had had consensual sex with the women, one whom he was introduced to by a friend and another he had casual sexual relationship with.

Jones' attorneys, Steven Bradely and Mark Marein, pointedly attacked the credibility of both women. They could not be reached for comment after the verdict.

In a closing statement, attorney Steven Bradley called one of the women a "chronic 20-plus-year crack user" who admitted to being high and drunk the night she said Jones attacked her. He also said she had sometimes worked as a prostitute.

She reported to police that Jones attacked her after seeing a news report about him being accused of a 2012 rape. Bradley said there was no evidence other than her report.

"Who here would be willing to rely on her," Bradley asked jurors.

The other woman, who made the first report against Jones in July 2012 when she was 34, willingly went to Jones' home and wasn't honest with the jury about having an interest in Jones, Bradley said.

He said witnesses described the Chicago woman as a conniving and manipulative liar.

Assistant County Prosecutor Melissa Riley, however, called attention to what she called Jones' "Penthouse forum" description of the encounters.

Jones' recollection didn't make sense with the reaction or injuries of the woman he met through friends at a card game.

Riley said witnesses described how upset she was after she said Jones raped her and that medical records backed up that she had physical injuries consistent with what she told police.

Riley also said the woman's doctors described several injuries she had and a recently surgery that made Jones' descriptions of her actions that night unlikely.

Riley also asked the jury to question why – if the allegations were false – did a man that knew Jones call the 2012 victim and offer her money to drop the complaint.

Jones has been suspended from the department without pay since August 2012.

Public Safety Director Michael McGrath will hold an administrative hearing soon to determine the fate of Jones' employment with the city, spokeswoman Maureen Harper said Wednesday.

OH - Upper Arlington lawyer (William B. Feldman) suspended after child porn found on his computer

William B. Feldman

Original Article

04/01/2014

By Randy Ludlow

The Ohio Supreme Court has suspended the law license of an Upper Arlington lawyer convicted of a child-pornography-related felony.

The justices suspended the inactive license of William B. Feldman, 66, after he pleaded guilty in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to pandering sexually oriented matter involving a juvenile.

Feldman initially was charged with eight counts of pandering after authorities said they discovered child pornography on his computer at his Lyon Drive home.

Judge Charles A. Schneider sentenced Feldman on Jan. 30 to three years of community control, intensive sex-offender supervision and required him to register as a sex offender for the next 25 years.

Upper Arlington officials have notified Feldman that he will have to move since he lives near Greensview Elementary School.
- He shouldn't have to just up and sale his home just because he now wears the "sex offender" label!

Certain sex-offenders are not permitted to live within 1,000 feet of schools and other locations which children frequent.

Feldman’s lawyer told ThisWeek Upper Arlington News that he might contest the order that he move because he owned his home prior to the enactment of the law restricting where sex offenders can live.

See Also:

• (02/12/2014) Man Fights Forced Move Following Child Porn Case

OH - Attorney Brad Koffel Gets Client’s Mandatory Sexual Registration Reversed

Original Article

03/28/2014

Columbus (PRWEB) - The Koffel Law Firm's Brad Koffel and Cleveland lawyer Russell Bensing successfully achieved a reversal of their client's mandatory sexual registration in a case heard by an Ohio appeals court (State v. Moore, 2014 Ohio 1123 - Ohio: Court of Appeals, 2nd Appellate Dist. 2014).

According to court documents, Koffel's client appealed his classification as a Tier II sex offender on the grounds that "the trial court erred in classifying him without a hearing, and without factual findings by a jury beyond those admitted by him."

In order for the Tier II sex offender classification to stand, factual findings outside the elements of Ohio's "Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a Minor" statute were required unless the defendant admitted them or waived his right to a jury with respect to those findings.

The defendant-appellant pled "no contest" to the charge against him, which could have fulfilled the "findings necessary for a Tier II classification" requirement, but the appeals court found that because the defendant-appellant's plea of no contest was "other than knowing and intelligent," the trial court was wrong to accept it. Therefore, the appeals court reversed the judgment.

About the Attorney:

Attorney Bradley P. Koffel founded The Koffel Law Firm in Columbus, Ohio. He has been included in the list of Best Lawyers in America® since 2008, and voted to the list of Ohio Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars℠ since 2005. Aside from legal honors and recognition, what sets Mr. Koffel apart is the way he strives to get to know his clients on a personal level to achieve the best results. To learn more, visit http://www.columbuscriminaldefensefirm.com.

OH - Franklin County Deputy (Justin Iddings) Charged With Possessing Child Porn

Justin Iddings

Original Article

03/27/2014

By Andy Long

WESTERVILLE - A Franklin County deputy is in jail, accused of possessing child pornography.

According to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Justin D. Iddings, 30, of Westerville was being investigated based on information that he may have been sharing child pornography.

Court records indicate that Iddings was in possession of video files that depicted juveniles engaging in sexual conduct with each other.

Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force members executed a search warrant at Iddings’ Allview Road home in Westerville and seized several computers, computer equipment and several firearms.

Iddings was arrested Thursday, charged with one F-2 count of pandering obscenity involving a minor and one F-4 count of pandering obscenity involving a minor.

The Sheriff’s office says that Iddings is a deputy that works in the Franklin County Jail. He has been placed on unpaid administrative leave while the investigation continues.

In one case, court records said that one of the children involved was between seven and ten years old.

Iddings is expected to appear in court Friday morning.

OH - 'Let me live my life': Registered sex offender shares his side of story

Original Article

03/22/2014

By Hannah Sparling

NEWARK - _____ is a registered sex offender.

He’ll admit to that, no problem.

He is not, however, a pedophile. He is not a child molester, and he has no interest messing with anyone’s kids, he said.

“A lot of people don’t know the story,” said _____, 44, from his West Main Street home. “They figure, because someone’s a sex offender, ‘Oh, he likes little kids.’ But that’s not always the case.”

“Before you go judge someone, do your homework.”

_____ is one of three sex offenders who were registered as living within 1,000 feet of Par Excellence Academy, a local elementary school. By law, registered adult sex offenders in Ohio are not allowed to live within 1,000 feet of a school, preschool or day care facility, but that restriction applies only to people convicted after July 1, 2003.

_____ says his offense was in late 2002 and his conviction in early 2003. Newark Law Director Doug Sassen said officials are still working to determine _____’s exact conviction date — it was out of state, which makes tracking down records more difficult — but if _____’s story holds up, he can stay put.

Par Excellence officials said they want _____ and the other two offenders to move, but _____ doesn't think he should have to. Moving is expensive, he’s happy where he is now, and he’s not causing any trouble, he said.

This past week, _____ sat down with The Advocate to share his side of the story.

Trying to move on

It started back in 2002. _____ was 31 at the time, living in New York, and he met a girl from Connecticut online. The girl told him she was 18, and one day, _____ and a friend picked her up to hang out, he said.

_____ said he spent one day with the girl. He kissed her, but they never had sex, he said. He put her on a train to go home, and that was that, he said.

Then _____ found out the girl was only 17. The girl’s grandmother pushed the issue, and authorities responded and arrested _____, he said.

Ultimately, _____ was charged with sexual abuse in the third degree, a class B misdemeanor in New York. He spent 45 days in jail, and he pleaded guilty to that charge only to avoid a legal battle that might have taken more time and cost him his job, he said.

_____ accepts some blame — “It was my fault because I should have checked the ID,” he said — but at the same time, he doesn't feel his offense is one that should haunt him for life. The girl willingly went with him to New York, he was under the impression the entire time she was an adult, and the two only kissed, he said.

“I’m still shocked why I gotta report for life (as a sex offender) when I only did 45 days (in jail),” he said. “It’s a misdemeanor.”

_____ is considering going back to New York to try to get his conviction overturned, but for now, he’s happily living on West Main Street with his soon-to-be wife, _____.

_____ was skeptical of _____ when they first met — she told him she was fact-checking everything he told her — but his story checked out, and now she trusts him and is sticking by him no matter what, she said.

Facing difficulty

The sex offense makes life difficult sometimes — it’s hard for _____ to find work, for example, and anytime the couple moves, everyone in the new neighborhood gets notified about _____’s sex-offender status — but _____ knows what kind of man _____ truly is, she said.

For _____’s part, he tries not to let his status get to him.

“It doesn't really bother me because I know what happened that day,” he said. “I’m not bothered by it. I’m still going to continue to live my life.”

_____ moved into his house about two years ago, and he checked with officials at the time to make sure the location was OK, he said. He thinks he’s within his rights, but if people still try to make him move, he’ll do his best to fight, he said. The way he sees it, he pleaded guilty, he did his time and now he should get to start fresh.

“I’m not moving. I’m fighting,” he said. “I already know I got the charge. Just leave me alone already. Let me live my life.”

“Everyone makes mistakes. I did my time for it. I’m not gonna keep doing time.”

OH - Former Minerva police officer (Timothy A. Patterson) arrested on multiple sex charges involving four teenagers

Timothy A. Patterson

Original Article

Agents with the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force Thursday night arrested a Minerva man wanted on several sex offenses involving four teenagers.

Timothy A. Patterson, 57, was arrested at 8 p.m. Thursday in a parking lot in the 3200 block of Atlantic Boulevard NE, according to Stark County Jail records.

Stark County court records, show he was arrested on a secret grand jury indictment charging him with two counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual imposition and a single count of bribery.

The victim in the rape case was listed as a 12-year-old girl, who was also a victim in the sexual imposition case along with a 14-year-old girl and two boys ages 12 and 17, court records show. Details of events that led to the charges were not available Friday.

Minerva Chief Robert First said he is shocked by the allegations.

“I feel bad for the victims,” he said. “I was totally shocked that anything like this would happen.”

Patterson had worked for the Minerva Police Department as a police officer, but not recently.

Hired onto the force on a part-time basis in 1987, he moved into a full-time position the following April, First said. Patterson went back to part-time status in November 1991 and, in July 1999, became a full-time officer again.

Patterson’s personnel file contained an award for Officer of the Month and letters from citizens praising his work. As far as any disciplinary actions, he had “nothing serious” in his file, First said.

First said Patterson left the force in April 2003, reporting that he had gotten a job driving a truck.

Patterson remained in the jail Friday, held without bond pending a March 21 hearing in Stark County Common Pleas Court, court records show.

OH - Loophole Allows Sex Offenders To Live Near Daycare

Daycare

Original Article (Video available)

02/10/2014

MONTGOMERY COUNTY - If you thought sex offenders had to live far away from your child's daycare, think again. We have learned of a disturbing loophole in the law that allows registered sex offenders to live right next door.
- It's not a loophole, it's a constitutional issue!  You cannot apply laws to someone who was convicted before the new law came about, that is an ex post facto and unconstitutional law.

Under state law registered sex offenders are banned from living within a thousand feet of schools, pre-schools, and daycares. Well, at least most sex offenders.

"If you pay your debt, you should be allowed a second chance but I totally disagree with offenders being allowed to live close to daycares," said Ron McKenstry, a father from Huber Heights.
- So then you don't believe in second chances!

There are almost 1100 registered sex offenders in Montgomery County. 55 live near daycares.

Some of those convicts are labeled by the state as sexual predators, but they're still legally allowed to live within a thousand feet of a place where dozens of children play.

"It's a big deal to this office. Not every sex offender is convicted of an offense against a child. Or a child of preschool or daycare age. But it is a concern. I know it's a concern for parents," said Montgomery Co. Sgt. Julie Stephens.

"Parents have rights too and they have to do everything they can to protect their children," McKenstry said.
- That is called being a parent which isn't a right!

Sex offenders that committed their crime before July 1st, 2007 are allowed to live near preschools and daycares. Those exempt offenders were grandfathered into that portion of the law because the crime occurred before the law went into effect.

"Even if they committed the crime before a specific date, I don't think they should be allowed to live near daycares by any means. I don't think it's a good idea, not a good idea," said Kettering mom, Molly Hallock.

Sgt. Stephens heads up Montgomery County's sex offender unit. She's well aware of every offender that's allowed to live within a thousand feet of a daycare. In fact at the time of our interview with her, she had just found three offenders to be in violation. They were living a stone's throw away from a daycare, when they were not exempt from the law. The prosecutor's office served each offender with a letter, giving them 30 days to get out.

"A lot of people are not aware when they're living next to a home or daycare, so as soon as we serve them, they start looking for alternate residences," Stephens said.

However the majority of offenders that live near daycares in Montgomery County, can't be forced to move due to their exemption.
- It's due to the constitution!

"People should get with their children and talk to your children about safety and maybe even show them a picture. Let them know this is a person we don't want to have interaction with," Stephens said.

All offenders, exempt from the law or not are required to register with the sheriff's office. So no matter what, with a few clicks of the mouse, you can find out if they live near your child's daycare.
- But you can't find out about the serial killer who may be living near you, or other dangerous criminals, that would be illegal!

OH - Ex-police chief (Jeremy Alley) has sex crimes erased from record

Jeremy Alley

Original Article

02/10/2014

By Kimball Perry

Jeremy Alley doesn’t want you to know that he was the Elmwood Place Police Chief in 2003.

That’s because his 11-day tenure as chief ended when Alley was arrested and ultimately convicted of using public computers on public time to try to solicit sex online from what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. Alley agreed to have sex with her.

Instead, the girl actually was a Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy posing as a teen girl and working to stop sex crimes.

Alley, 37, spent six months behind bars, was on probation for five years and had to report as a sex offender through last year. He applied in April to have his criminal record erased from public inspection but Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Norbert Nadel denied the request, telling Alley to come back when he no longer had to report as a sex offender.

Alley was in court Monday and, despite the protests of Assistant Prosecutor Scott Heenan, the judge granted Alley’s request to have his record erased. Heenan told the judge the public’s right to know that a police chief who committed sex crimes outweighs Alley’s right to privacy.

“He was in a huge position of trust being a police chief,” Heenan told the judge. “He violated that trust in about as gross a way as you possibly could.”

The judge disagreed and allowed Alley’s record to be erased.

Because Alley committed his crimes in 2003, the state law at that time allowed for him to have them erased. Now, the law has changed so those crimes aren’t eligible to be erased.

See Also:

• (04/09/2012) Ex-police chief wants sex counts for propositioning a "15-year-old" online, expunged
• (04/16/2013) Ex-Elmwood police chief can't get criminal record erased

OH - Attorney General Mike DeWine is freaking out again - Sex offenders living in nursing homes

Original Article

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.