Did the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office interfere with fulfilling the dream of a dying vet?

A few days ago, I posted about the Dream Foundation's revocation of a dream trip for a dying vet after it was discovered the man was a Registered Person. Now, after a number of activists contacted the media and the Dream Foundation, it is highly likely the people most responsible for sounding the alarm were members of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. 

Below is a press release from the National RSOL group. 

RSOL, Inc. | Cambridge, Massachusetts

Contacts:                                                                             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

National RSOL | 888.997.7765 xt. 1

communications@nationalrsol.org

Ohio RSOL | ohiorsol@yahoo.com

Montgomery County Sheriff Office Conspires Against Veteran

Dying man suffers public humiliation as direct consequence of

overzealous operative determined to prevent his final wishes

January 20, 2015—Dayton, Ohio—Military veteran Greg Poston and his brother are dying of cancer. Their physician, Dr. Emily Vannorsdall, contacted the Dream Foundation about their dying wish, to see the Grand Canyon. At first the foundation was on board, and, with the help of the Veterans Service Commission, offered the trip to the brothers and their siblings.

The Dream Foundation is an organization headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, that grants dreams to adults with life-threatening diseases.

It was originally reported that after announcing the gift, the Dream Foundation received numerous phone calls from angry citizens informing them of Greg’s status as a registered sex offender. The Dream Foundation subsequently announced that it had withdrawn the gift to Greg, stating, " ‘After speaking with members of this individual's community, and consulting with our legal counsel and board of directors, Dream Foundation does not believe it is appropriate to proceed in the fulfillment of this individual's dream.’ ”

However, sources close to Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer have confirmed that his office was chiefly responsible for leaking Greg's status to Channel 22 WKEF, the local ABC affiliate in Dayton, and conspiring to puff Greg's registration as a legitimate reason to deny him the trip.

RSOL, Inc. demands to know who contacted WKEF and why. “I am outraged about all of this. The fact that the Dream Foundation first gave a gift to a dying veteran, then snatched it away, is bad enough,” said Brenda Jones, Executive Director of RSOL, Inc.

“But the very idea that the sheriff's office, in collusion with Channel 22, may be behind the effort to gin up the public's obvious indignation is too much to swallow. When is enough, enough? Greg Poston had been tried, convicted, and punished for his crime. Justice was served. What's the point in humiliating a dying man? 

“At this point, for Greg, there is not even the pretense of justice but only that of revenge, and it is an outrage that his last dream was held out to him and then snatched away due to the hatred and unforgiving heart of someone who is sworn to protect the public trust.”

Both National and Ohio RSOL had initially written the Dream Foundation to protest its decision. RSOL, Inc. is a national organization that advocates for and encourages the successful rehabilitation and reintegration of former sex offenders into a law-abiding society.

“We strongly object to continued consequences that amount to additional punishment after a registered citizen has satisfied his term of court-ordered punishment,” said D. Madison, head of the Ohio affiliate. “We have lived for years now with the absurd consequences of basing legislation and policy on emotions and victim-driven reactions rather than facts and evidence, and studies show these consequences to be ineffective—indeed, often harmful—in improving public safety.”

Founded in 2007, RSOL, Inc. (www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org) is a national organization dedicated to enacting effective, fact-based sexual offense laws and policies which promote public safety, safeguard civil liberties, honor human dignity, and offer holistic prevention, healing, and restoration.

Dream trip revoked for sex offender with cancer

If this story makes you angry like it made me, feel free to contact the Dream Foundation here:

http://www.dreamfoundation.org/

This story makes me glad I'm not a vet.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/dream-trip-revoked-for-sex-offender-with-cancer/njqHm/

Dream trip revoked for sex offender with cancer

By Katherine Wright
Staff Writer

A dream trip to the Grand Canyon has been revoked for a local terminally ill veteran after the dream-granting organization discovered that he was a convicted sex offender.
Greg Poston, 62, of Dayton, received a free vacation from the Dream Foundation, a national wish-granting organization for adults with life-threatening illnesses. Greg Poston and his brother, Roger, have terminal cancer. Their three siblings were to accompany them on the trip.
The foundation decided to revoke Greg Poston’s trip. Greg Poston was convicted of two counts of gross sexual imposition in Moraine in 2007, according to court records.
“After we announced the trip, we received a series of phone calls from the Dayton community to ask us if we were aware that this person” was a sex offender, said Tristan Layton of the Dream Foundation. “We were not. It was a very, very difficult decision to make. But we listened to the feedback and respected the families of these victims, and we made the decision to revoke Gregory’s trip.”
The organization serves 2500 dreams a year from its small Santa Barbara, Calif., office. This is the first time something like this has happened in 20 years, Layton said.
Greg Poston’s brother, Roger, and the rest of the family can still take the trip, he said.
“We hope that the rest of the family take the trip. That is up to them,” he said.
The Montgomery County Veterans Service Commission, which had partnered with the Dream Foundation to deliver the trip packet to the Postons, had nothing to do with the decision, said Montgomery County spokeswoman Cathy Petersen.

Mansfield local facility to house homeless sex offenders

This is good news for registrants from Mansfield.

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/local/2014/12/17/local-facility-house-homeless-sex-offenders/20564475/

Local facility to house homeless sex offenders
Mark Caudill 8:06 p.m. EST December 17, 2014

MANSFIELD – The Richland County Community Corrections Board approved a change Wednesday to admit some homeless county sex offenders to a local facility.

Nothing Into Something Real Estate is a faith-based nonprofit agency with headquarters in Columbus. Representatives from the group proposed two changes at Wednesday’s meeting.

One change would expand the eligibility for the exit program, now located on East Cook Road, to admit some homeless Richland County sex offenders who committed their crimes locally.

Target populations include homeless sex offenders convicted of failure to register and those who have completed Volunteers of America sex offender treatment.

No sex offenders will be accepted from other counties. The program will provide housing and monitoring, with treatment to be referred to existing local agencies.

The measure passed unanimously.

“It’s hard to keep track of a guy who has no residence,” Common Pleas Judge Brent Robinson said.

Robinson said Judge James DeWeese, who was ill Wednesday, drafted the language.

Man accused of Ohio jail attack on sex offense suspect who later died gets 5 years in prison

I don't feel five years was enough for killing a man and trying to cover up his involvement.

http://www.newser.com/article/b89c1dbb196942148cf5e1b28fde5c21/man-accused-of-ohio-jail-attack-on-child-rape-suspect-who-later-died-gets-5-years-in-prison.html

Man accused of Ohio jail attack on child rape suspect who later died gets 5 years in prison
Ohioan gets 5 years for child rape suspect's death

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS | ASSOCIATED PRESS | Nov 12, 2014 4:55 PM CST 
             
URBANA, Ohio (AP) — A judge on Wednesday handed down a five-year prison term to an Ohio man for the jailhouse beating of a child-rape suspect who later died, rejecting the suspect's allegations that other inmates also attacked the victim.

Defendant Zachary Butler also was fined $1,500 and ordered to serve three years' probation after prison.

A report by the Champaign County Sheriff's Office says inmate David Piersol was beaten on April 5 at Tri-County Regional Jail in Mechanicsburg and died a few days later. Piersol, of Marysville, was in jail after being charged with allegedly raping a young girl.

Butler, 24, of Richwood, pleaded guilty last month to one count of reckless homicide and one count of tampering with evidence.

The tampering charge involves an accusation that Butler traded blood-stained pants with another inmate, said Champaign County prosecutor Kevin Talebi.

Champaign County Judge Nick Selvaggio said Butler had shown remorse and was one of the few offenders he'd ever seen directly address a victim's family when apologizing.

Selvaggio said Butler also acted at the urging of other inmates, who were verbally assaulting Piersol because of the nature of the crime, according to testimony Wednesday.

But Selvaggio said he couldn't overlook the seriousness of Butler's assault on Piersol, the fact it happened in a jail and the fact that Butler didn't seek help for the victim afterward.

"What's clear is this defendant is the one who caused the death," Selvaggio said.

Butler took responsibility for the assault and apologized to Piersol's family. He said other inmates told him he had to attack Piersol as a new inmate in the jail, where Butler had been placed on unrelated charges.

"I made bad decisions," Butler said. "I knew what I was doing."

Piersol's sister, Gery Martin, told the judge her brother's death was a huge loss for the family, and she told Butler directly: "Our family is holding you accountable."

BILL WOULD ADD PUBLIC INDECENCY TO SEX OFFENDER LIST

Looks like Ohio is trying to find a way to squeeze a few more faces onto the public registry. Ohio wants to join the dozen or so states that could place you on the registry for urinating in public or getting too hot and steamy in public places.

For the text of SB 358: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=130_SB_358

Here is a brief news article on the subject.

http://www.thegatewaynews.com/latest%20headlines/2014/12/02/bill-would-add-public-indecency-to-sex-offender-list

BILL WOULD ADD PUBLIC INDECENCY TO SEX OFFENDER LIST
Published: December 2, 2014 11:03PM

Columbus -- Individuals who expose their private parts or engage in sexual conduct in public in view of children could end up on the state's sex offender registry, under legislation being considered in the Ohio Senate.

SB 358 seeks to prohibit such behavior if it's "likely to be viewed by and affront minors" and would increase criminal penalties against perpetrators, according to an analysis by the state's Legislative Service Commission.

The bill had a first hearing Nov. 25 before the Ohio Senate's Criminal Justice Committee.

-- Marc Kovac, Capital Bureau

Notification sought for sex offenders entering developmental disabilities homes

This looks like another bad bill similar to the nursing home bill that recently passed.

http://www.akronlegalnews.com/editorial/11560

Notification sought for sex offenders entering developmental disabilities homes
TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 10, 2014

Rep. Anthony DeVitis has introduced a bill into the Ohio General Assembly that would outline protocol regarding the admission of sex offenders to residential facilities owned by county boards of developmental disabilities.

“Before an individual is admitted as a resident to a residential facility owned by a county board of developmental disabilities, the residential facility will have to research the Internet database to identify if the individual is a sex offender,” said DeVitis, R-Uniontown.

“If the individual is identified as a sex offender, the local law enforcement agencies and the leaders of the community will be notified of their possible admission.”

House Bill 621 states that officials from the residential facility would contact community leaders who they have “reason to believe would help disseminate to other members of the community the information about the individual’s possible admission.”

HB 621 states that each residential facility shall develop a protocol for establishing and implementing all of the following plans when the facility admits as a resident an individual who is identified as a sex offender: a resident supervision plan that provides for the residential facility to identify and provide the proper amount of supervision the individual needs at the residential facility; a medical emergency plan for the individual and other residents of the facility; and a community engagement plan that includes methods for members of the community being able to express concerns about the residential facility’s operation and for the residential facility to address any concerns.

Subject to the redaction of all medical information, the measure also calls for a residential facility to provide copies of the proposed plans to local law enforcement agencies and community leaders who have been provided notice about the sex offender.

“This legislation will better serve the individual and the community to determine the supervision level for the individual’s treatment or progress,” DeVitis said.

HB 621 is co-sponsored by Reps. Peter Beck and John Becker. The bill is awaiting a committee assignment.

Copyright © 2014 The Daily Reporter - All Rights Reserved

Rep. DeVitis in front of his family business. If you live in Akron, don't patronize this place. 

10 Investigates: "Legal Loophole" Allows SOs To Avoid Time Behind Bars

I am merely posting this story because we can likely expect legislation to be hastily passed to close this alleged "loophole." No doubt, if DeSwine gets elected, we can expect this to become his pet project.

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2014/10/30/10-investigates-sex-offenders-importuning-loophole.html

By Nathan Baca
Thursday October 30, 2014 3:08 PM 
UPDATED: Friday October 31, 2014 7:13 AM
 274   111  Google +0  478
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The crime of importuning is an undercover world, where adults try to meet kids - often online - for sex.

But some of those caught can avoid being listed on the sex offender registry that parents use to keep their families safe, 10 Investigates has found.

"There's no way for families to even know about this. You putting this out on the news is going to be the first families have probably heard of it," Sheriff Zach Scott said. “And they don't know. There's no way to get that information out."

In addition, a majority of sex offenders caught for importuning don’t serve time in prison, 10 Investigates found.

That's because prosecutors cut deals - and a majority of Franklin County judges are willing to accept those deals. Some say that catching an adult wanting to meet a child for sex in an undercover sting is a "victimless crime."

Columbus resident Rico Dawkins disagrees with the plea deals. He and his wife check the sex offender registry. They had no idea that such a criminal was living close by, until notified by 10 Investigates.

"I don't think that's right. I don't feel that's right. I've got two daughters and I'd go crazy if something happened to them,” Dawkins said.

10 Investigates analyzed court records of importuning charges from 2010 to mid-September. Records show that only 19 of the 93 people who have been charged with importuning and sentenced during that time were sentenced to prison. Of the others, 70 were given probation.

That's despite a law Ohio passed in 2008 with the intention to put nearly all people in prison caught trying to meet children for sex.

10 Investigates talked to three Common Pleas judges who all said the sentencing was proper. The law, they note, gives them discretion with many sex offenders.

In court, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard S. Sheward said he is "bothered" by undercover detectives posing as teens in order to have sex with children, adding that he thinks the undercover stings lead to police "misrepresentation."

"Our prisons hold 36,000 people. Right now, we have about 52,000 in there. We can't send everybody to prison,” Sheward said in an interview.

Law enforcement doesn’t see it that way.

"I guess this judges' position is disappointing to the law enforcement community,” Scott said.

Scott leads the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a group of investigators made up of law enforcement from the Sheriff’s office, Columbus Police, six suburban police agencies, and state and federal officials.

They investigate sex offenders who are prosecuted. All those convicted of importuning are added to the state’s sex offender registry so families can be aware of sex offenders in their neighborhood.

10 Investigates found five criminals they investigated who were not on the registry: *********.


 All five were charged with importuning for soliciting what they thought were teens for sex. But all five negotiated plea deals so they are not required to register as a sex offender.

The law says repeat sexual offenders automatically get prison time, but 10 Investigates found ***** who was charged with 5 counts of raping boys from 11 to 13 years old in 1991.

He did six years in prison, but was arrested again in 2012 after detectives snag him in a sting operation wanting to meet a child for sex.

***** avoids prison with another deal, 10 Investigates Nathan Baca talked with him at his home.

"I don't want to be involved in this. I think we're going to call it enough," ****** said.

"But you did do something online," Baca said.

"Yes,” he said.

After uncovering just how many sex criminals get deals, 10 Investigates brought the findings to two state senators. Now, there's an effort to close what they believe is a legal loophole.

"We've got to improve this law,” Sen. Tim Shaeffer said. “We've got to fix this loophole that apparently the judiciary is letting some folks through without any prison time."

Even first-time offenders should be in prison for this type of crime, Senator Jim Hughes said.

"We feel these people should be incarcerated to keep our children safe," Hughes added.

Watch 10TV on Monday for a follow up to the story on efforts to change the law and toughen the penalties.

Clark County getting in on the Halloween Hysteria

It is Halloween season, so here comes the annual Predator Panic Halloween specials. I'd like to point out I have covered this issue for many years now:

http://www.oncefallen.com/HalloweenLaws.html

Now, onto the featured article. Essentially the fluff piece is a whole lot of nothing. Essentially there is no state law prohibiting registered citizens from any Halloween functions, so the next best thing the police can offer is what seems to be a "compliance check."

http://www.fox45now.com/shared/news/top-stories/stories/wrgt_vid_22888.shtml

Clark County Sheriff's Office Has A New Program To Help Keep Track Of Sex Offenders

CLARK COUNTY -- Halloween is just around the corner and the Clark county Sheriff's Office is stepping up its patrol of sex offenders.

Deputies will now be notified by dispatchers if the address their at, is where a registered sex offender lives.

The sheriffs office is in charge of monitoring more than 200 offenders and there's only one deputy in charge of all of them.

But now, with the help of dispatchers, there will be more eyes monitoring them then ever before.

"Oh there ain't never no good neighborhoods any more. So I keep them as close as I can to me. That's the best way," said Krystal Kellison.

"I don't let them go by their self at all," said Tristan Wells.

Springfield parents are already on high alert.

Just in time for trick or treating.

And Clark County deputies ensure they won't let sex offenders pass them by.

"We have one of the most aggressive, check up validation systems in Ohio," said Sheriff Gene Kelly, Clark County Sheriff's Office.

And now they're working harder to make sure your kids are safe.

They started a new program that gives dispatchers access to the address of a registered sex offender.

They then let deputies know if they're called to that home, so the deputy can check up on the offender.

"People need this knowledge it's very easy to get that information and knowledge is power to keep your children safe," said Sheriff Kelly.

Parents are receptive to the new program.

"That's pretty good that they're checking them make sure our kids are safe," said Paul Wells, "Makes you feel a lot safer."

Clark County Deputies also go out on the night kids are trick or treating and make sure offenders are staying away from kids and are where they're supposed to be.

We can't trust Mike DeWine to give us the facts on sex offender topics

It is political season, and the Ohio Attorney General's race is heating up. If you are like me, you're not a fan of Mike DeWine (I prefer to call him "DeSwine"). I thought I'd take a few minutes to show a few of DFeWine's controversies. This man is very uneducated on the topic of sex offenders, as most Attorneys General tend to be. However, he is the front runner in this race.

DeWine pushed to add a "reverse phone/internet ID lookup" function to the registry. "With nearly 18,000 registered sex offenders living in Ohio, we believe this is very a useful tool," DeWine said. "Chances are you wouldn't let a stranger in your home. So, parents need to keep communicating with their kids about letting strangers - virtual ones - in their circle of friends. This is also a useful feature for adults as well to know who they are communicating with." The registry is run by Offender Watch, a private business that was collecting about half a million annually to maintain the registry in Ohio.

The second problem is DeWine had pushed the issue of community notification for registered persons in nursing homes. You have to love the "loophole" comment:

"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.

Finally, there is the claim he made of the link between CP viewing and molestation, which includes a reference to the debunked Butner study.

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/nov/30/mike-dewine/mike-dewine-cites-link-between-viewing-child-porno/

In the wake of the Penn State scandal, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine rolled out a new "Crimes Against Children" initiative on Nov. 18 targeting Internet predators who trade child pornography or actually molest or attempt to molest children.

Flanked by police chiefs and prosecutors, DeWine announced that he was dedicating a new 15-person unit to focus on stopping crimes against children. The unit would be part of the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is run by his office. Attempting to demonstrate the prevalence of the crimes in today’s society, DeWine focused on the link between viewers of child pornography and the actual molestation of children.

"At a minimum, 40 percent of those who view child pornography end up molesting children as a result," DeWine said. "At least 40 percent, some estimates as high as 80 percent."

PolitiFact Ohio was struck by the relatively high percentage cited by DeWine and the cause and effect he said exists between viewing child porn and committing physical acts of sexual contact against children. Could four in 10 people who viewed child porn really be committing sexual acts against children?

We turned first to DeWine’s office for some supporting evidence, who quickly e-mailed us a pair of studies said to back up his claim.  

The first study, entitled "A Profile of Pedophilia: Definition, Characteristics of Offenders, Recidivism, Treatment Outcomes, and Forensic Issues, is from doctors at the Mayo Clinic.

It states that 30 to 80 percent of arrested individuals who viewed child pornography and 76 percent of individuals who were arrested for Internet child pornography had molested a child, according to studies and case reports. The study quotes from a November 2004 article from the American Prosecutors Research Institute called "From Fantasy to Reality: The Link Between Viewing Child Pornography and Molesting Children" written by Candice Kim. It also apparently references a 2000 study of sex offender inmates in a Federal Bureau of Prisons program.  

Kim’s report cites a U.S. Postal Inspection Service finding that 80 percent of purchasers of child pornography are active abusers and nearly 40 percent of the child pornographers investigated over several years have sexually molested children. A footnote indicates the statement is taken from the 2002 testimony Ernie Allen, director of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, when he appeared before a  congressional committee.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service made 1,807 child porn arrests from January 1997 to March 2004 which netted 620 "confirmed child molesters," the article states. That is a child molestor rate of 34.3 percent, according to the statistic provided by U.S. Postal Inspection Service Agent Ray Smith during a 2004 interview with Kim.

Other statistics found in the report include a Pennsylvania-based law enforcement task force reporting that 51 percent of individuals arrested for pornography-related offense were also determined to be actively molesting children or to have molested in the past. In Dallas, a similar task force put that figure at 31 percent. The original source of those statements was again Allen’s 2002 congressional testimony.   

The other study cited by DeWine’s office is a 2005 study funded by a congressional grant to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. In that study of 1,713 people arrested nationwide for child pornography in a one-year period from July 2000 to July 2001, 40 percent were "dual offenders" who sexually victimized children and possessed child pornography with both crimes discovered in the same investigation.

So what are all these studies saying?

They are saying there is a link between those arrested by various state and federal law enforcement agencies for child porn possession and acts of molestation of children by this same group of people.  

What the do not say, though, is that the link exists for the entire group of people that views child porn and whether those people molest children.

As the 2005 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children report puts it "we do not know if these child porn possessors were representative of all Internet-related child porn possessors."   

Furthermore, that report states that there is no known evidence supporting cause and effect -- that simply possessing child pornography encourages or causes child victimization. There has been no study of this issue.  

"Knowing a considerable number of dual offenders were discovered during investigations of Internet-related, child-sexual victimization and child porn possession cases does not explain how possessing child pornography is related to child victimization or whether it encourages or causes such victimization," states the report. "We do not have data to determine this."

Later, the report states as to whether the child porn viewing is done before the molesting "we had no information about the sequencing of crimes committed by dual offenders."  

Meanwhile, a 2000 study done by psychologists working with prisoners in the Federal Bureau of Prisons sex offender treatment program found that 76 percent of inmates charged with child pornography crimes admitted to having committed contact sex crimes. That study was followed up in 2009 by a similar study which found that 85 percent of 155 convicted sex offenders had committed at least one "hands on sexual offense."

However, a paper prepared by one of the primary authors of both studies, Andres Hernandez, stresses not to apply the statistics of those convicted of child porn possession to the larger "unknown" population of child porn users.

"The number of individuals who are apprehended by law enforcement for committing child porn offenses represents a small proportion of the population of individuals collecting, trading and producing child pornography worldwide," Hernandez writes. "Some individuals have misused the results (of the two studies) to fuel the argument that the majority of child porn offenders are indeed contact sexual offenders and, therefore, dangerous predators. This is simply not supported by the scientific evidence."

Said Hernandez’s paper: "Some individuals in law enforcement are tempted to rely on a biased interpretation of our study...to prove that the majority of child porn offenders are child molestors."

Hernandez’s paper also notes something not reported in this 2009 study — that a 42-person sample of the prisoners were asked questions about when they began possessing child porn compared to when they began committing contact sexual crimes.

"The vast majority of our subjects indicated they committed hands-on abuse prior to seeking child pornography via the Internet," he writes. "The results indicated that in 41 of 42 cases examined hands-on sexual crimes preceded child porn offenses."  

So where are we left as we bid this abhorrent subject goodbye?

At a news conference promoting a crackdown on sexual crimes against children, DeWine made statements stating that "at a minimum 40 percent of those who view child pornography end up molesting children as a result."

Molestation crimes are horrific. And while DeWine’s statement is overly broad, it does contain an element of truth: that people who commit acts of child molestation also often view child pornography.

His statements are based on studies which are all of those arrested for child porn offenses and range from a 31 percent child molester rate up to 85 percent, depending on the study.  

However, several of the authors of those studies caution that the numbers should not be generalized to the bigger universe of all people who have viewed child porn -- those who have been arrested and those who have not. And that’s exactly what DeWine did.

And researchers caution that there is no evidence that the molesting of children by those possessing child porn takes place as a result of viewing the child porn, a claim made by DeWine. Quite to the contrary, study of this cause-effect relationship we found suggests that nearly all offenders committed acts of molestation prior to looking at child porn.

Those are critical facts that would give a different impression of DeWine’s claim.

On the Truth-O-Meter, his claim rates Mostly False.

I really hope DeSwine is voted out of office, but if he isn't, I want Ohio activists to be aware of DeSwine and his anti-registrant stance.

Bill to allow sex offenders to be admitted into residential facilities

I will have to look over HB 621 and see if there are any potential issues.

http://www.norwalkreflector.com/article/4967546

Bill to allow sex offenders to be admitted into residential facilities
Ohio General Assembly is on recess until the week after November’s general election.
MCT REGIONAL NEWS
SEP 26, 2014

A state representative from Summit County has introduced a bill that would allow sex offenders to be admitted into residential facilities designed for those with developmental disabilities, clearing up what the law maker calls a “black hole.”

State and county developmental disability agencies aren’t yet familiar enough with this bill to know how it could affect how business is done at residential facilities.

Rep. Anthony DeVitis, R-Green, submitted House Bill 621 to the Ohio House, on Sept. 16, which is in response to an issue that happened at a residential facility in Tallmadge, Ohio. Residents in the Akron suburb were upset last year when sex offenders living were at a developmental disabilities residential facility, and “that didn’t set well in the communities because they were sex offenders,” he said.

That particular issue was resolved, but prompted a need for state protocols to be established. After DeVitis said he didn’t receive or hear from the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities any protocols, he said he introduced the bill last week.

According to the legislation, the bill would allow:

• the search for the individual’s name in the internet-based sex offender and child-victim offender database. If the search identifies that person as a sex offender, then all pertinent law enforcement agencies and relevant community leaders would be notified;

• a residential facility to develop a protocol to establish and implement a resident supervision plan, medical emergency plan and community engagement plan;

• a residential facility to establish and implement the developed protocol plans and submit those plants to the relevant local law enforcement agencies and community leaders; and

• a residential facility shall redact all medical information about individuals from the copies of the protocol plans.

The bill has yet to receive any discussion in the General Assembly, which is on recess until the week after November’s general election, and has yet to be assigned to a subcommittee.

“It’s not exactly what the community would like to have happen, but there were certain civil liberties we couldn’t violate,” he said.

DeVitis said he has not yet received a lot of feedback concerning the bill, but said this fills in a “black hole” in the system.

HB 621 comes a year after the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities convened a work group comprised of several experts from around the state. The goal, according to a letter dated on Sept. 11 from the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, was “to develop supervision protocols for individuals with developmental disabilities who have been convicted of a sex crime to better serve these individuals and the communities where they lived.”

DeVitis said he was not aware this work group was formed and met.

The 2013 work group developed four recommendations, which included: developing a protocol for assessments, guide to help determine appropriate supervision levels, tool to examine the effect of environmental factors on an individual’s treatment and progress, and plan for relapse prevention.

Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities Superintendent Lisa Guliano said the board has no official position on the bill at this time since it was just introduced and agency hasn’t vetted the merits and disadvantages of the bill.

“Our practice is to plan supports around people in order to safeguard them, the people they live with, and the community they live in,” said Guliano. “People who have sexually offending behaviors live throughout our community whether they have a disability or not. There are rules and laws in place for sex offenders that individuals with developmental disabilities are already subject to.”

Megan Manuel, Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities superintendent, said her agency is holding a similar position.

“I was aware of (the bill), but I wasn’t contacted before it was introduced,” she said. “Our board has not discussed it or taken a position on it at this time.”

Officials with the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities don’t yet have a position on House Bill 621.

“We’re reviewing the legislation and we will watch it as it moves forward,” said Kerry Francis, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, though she said officials were aware DeVitis was working on the legislation.

When the Ohio House and Senate reconvenes to its lame duck session, DeVitis said he isn’t certain what kind of traction the bill will receive.

He said the protocols being called for by the bill could be handled without legislation and simply by the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities creating new policies and protocols. But if the bill does not pass both chambers of the General Assembly before the end of the 130th General Assembly in mid-December, he will reintroduce the bill provided he’s elected in November.