LIFE AS A SEX OFFENDER

New Carlisle, Ohio — A registered sex offender, he committed his crime 10 years ago. Now he has a wife and three kids.

Being a registered sex offender has cost him jobs and made finding employment difficult. He and his wife say that their kids are teased at school, and other parents are wary of letting their owns kids play with their children or stay overnight at their house.

The man and his wife agreed to speak with the News-Sun in return for their names be withheld from the article. They fear that they or their children might be harassed.

"I don't want or need that kind of attention," the man said.

According to court records and interviews, the man was convicted of third-degree sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl in a case out of Wyoming in 2000. He was given a suspended prison sentence of one to three years. His probation was revoked after he was brought up on a breach of peace charge and after police witnessed a girl under 18 getting into his truck in a high school parking lot.

He then served 18 months in prison. He has been out ever since, but has had difficulty adjusting to life as a registered sex offender.

"(After I get a job) there will be a phone-call saying "There's a sex offender working for you,' and I get fired just like that," he said. "People automatically think the worst."

In July, his neighbor hung two signs in a front window alerting the neighborhood that he had, "raped a 14 year old girl in Wyoming who was under the influence of alcohol at the time."

The neighbor then filed a civil suit against him, seeking injunctive relief on the grounds that he was violating Ohio law by living within 1,000 feet of a school.

In fact, two registered sex offenders live within 1,000 feet of New Carlisle Elementary School. He is one of them, but he committed his offense before July 31, 2003, the date Ohio's residency restrictions for sex offenders went into effect. A ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court this year determined that offenders who moved to their homes or committed their offenses before July 31, 2003, aren't bound by the restrictions.

State Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, wants to change that. In August he introduced House Bill 607, which would effectively make the residency restrictions retroactive.

"As long as they are registered sex offenders, they are still quote unquote 'paying their debt to society,' " Stewart said. "This is one of the most heinous crimes."

The way his bill is written, the restrictions would apply to all sex offenders in the state, regardless of when they committed their offenses or when they moved into their homes. That would mean that some offenders now in compliance would have to look for a new place to live.

This November, Stewart won a race for a state Senate seat. He said he expected there to be hearings on the bill this month after the state legislature reconvenes or later on in December.

In the meantime, the neighbor said he has no plans to take his signs down. Neither will he so much as speak to the sex offender. "I haven't talked to him," the neighbor said in a phone interview. "I don't intend to."

Margie Slagle, an attorney with the Cincinnati-based Ohio Justice & Policy Center, which litigated the residency restrictions issue in the Ohio Supreme Court, is now representing the sex offender. In September, she filed a motion to dismiss the civil suit.

Though she isn't opposed to all sex offender registry notification legislation, she believes residency restrictions have the potential to endanger the public. They can isolate offenders and sever their ties to support systems.

"Studies on recidivism show a huge correlation between employment, family support, housing and re-offending," she said. "They're coming back into the community. Why are we putting up barriers that prevent them from succeeding?"

Last month, in response to Slagle's motion to dismiss, the neighbor filed a motion for a stay, pending the outcome of House Bill 607.