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Reclassifying sex offenders sends courts into chaos

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By Lou Grieco  and Mark Gokavi, Staff Writers Updated 9:53 AM Wednesday, July 21, 2010

DAYTON — The second reclassification of sex offenders in two years is forcing prosecutors and judges statewide to spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to resolve the resulting fiasco.

“It’s a mess,” said Greene County Prosecutor Stephen K. Haller. “To me it’s an example of nonlawyers trying to pass legislation just because it’s today’s hot topic.”

From 1997 until Jan. 1, 2008, sex offenders were classified under the state’s Megan’s Law. Judges determined what risk the offenders were and placed them in one of three categories.

The Adam Walsh Act, which replaced Megan’s Law, has three categories as well — but offenders are placed solely by convicted offense. The act also was to be retroactive, causing a re-classification of the nearly 26,000 offenders designated under Megan.

The result was thousands of court challenges statewide. The Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office filed challenges on behalf of nearly 250 offenders. In Cuyahoga County, there were nearly 2,000.

On June 3, the Ohio Supreme Court found that those re-classifications violated the separation-of-powers doctrine of the state constitution.

Now those who were reclassified, at state expense, must go back to their original classifications. Sheriff’s offices say it will take weeks or longer to reclassify, particularly in counties without online court records.

“It was almost predictable,” Haller said. “We’re trying to clean up the mess.”

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