A Warren County judge has released another sex offender from prison early.

Daniel Earl Webster, a former Sunday school teacher who pleaded guilty to performing sex acts on a 16-year-old family friend, was released early from a four-year prison term last week by Judge Robert Peeler.

Webster served about 305 days of his four-year prison sentence.

Peeler also released former Mason gym teacher Stacy Schuler — who was found guilty of having sex with five students, mainly football players — in November after she served a little more than a year behind bars.

Webster, 42, of Loveland, taught Sunday school at the Life Adventure Church in Lebanon. He pleaded guilty in March 2012 to two charges of sexual battery — both third degree felonies — in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

Joe Stookey, pastor at Life Adventure Church, said he understands the courts face pressure from the state to reduce prison populations; however, sex offenders aren’t the right prisoners to release, he said.

“I’m not trying to throw rocks at the judge or the legal system, people have budgets,” he said. “But if these are the kind of decisions we are going to be unleashing on our community, maybe there is a different kind of prisoner we’d rather deal with as citizens than pedophiles.”

Charlie M. Rittgers, an attorney who was involved in both the Schuler and Webster cases, said although both received four-year prison terms and were released early on sex convictions, the situations were different.

Sixty-three letters were sent to Peeler supporting Schuler’s early release. At her hearing, only one victim showed up and spoke against her release. Several of the victim’s parents gave tearful testimony about how Schuler ruined their children’s lives.

No one demanded Webster remain behind bars at his release hearing, according to Rittgers.

Schuler completed her sex offender treatment in prison, but because it was determined Webster’s chances of recidivism were so low, he couldn’t get treatment in prison. Therefore, Webster will still be locked down at the Community Correctional Center for in-patient sex offender treatment.

Peeler could not be reached for comment regarding Webster’s release, but he did comment on judicial release previously.

“My philosophy is there should be some form of rehabilitation in the prisons,” he said. “The experts, who have done the study at (University of Cincinnati) are telling us that locking people in a cell just is not working. We have to examine other alternatives. There are times when the only thing you can do is lock someone in a cell to protect society. But non-violent crimes, the only thing prison seems to be doing is increasing violent crime.”

A survey by the Middletown Journal last fall showed Warren County judges freed 118 or 14 percent of the 817 prisoners who left the system between 2009 and 2011. Most of those cases involved drugs and money.

Ohio Department of Corrections statistics show that judges statewide released 17 percent of the exiting prisoners early.

Stookey said part of the reason Webster was let go was he evidently a model prisoner.

“He’s very good at showing good behavior,” he said. “I’m more concerned about what’s going to happen when he is not around people that are monitoring him.”

Webster was arrested on Jan. 27 after an investigation into allegations he performed sex acts on a 16-year-old family friend. The acts started when the boy was 15 and continued on for about a year, according to police reports. Webster was the boy’s Sunday school teacher, but Prosecutor David Fornshell said the incidents didn’t happen at the church.