Saturday, January 23, 1999
City might publicize sexual predators in newspaper ads
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SHARONVILLE — Court-designated sexual predators who move into this city after being released from prison might be identified in newspaper ads — paid for by this city.
The city's law committee is considering ways to put more teeth into the state's sexual predator law. Sharonville would become the fifth Hamilton County community to bolster the state statute.
Such statutes nationwide have been dubbed Megan's laws after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who in 1994 was raped and murdered by a two-time sex offender who lived in her neighborhood. Her neighbors had no idea of the offender's record.
City Law Director Tom Keating said the Ohio law provides that “notification (of a court-designated sexual predator) only goes to adjoining property owners” living next to predators who move into town.
“It also goes to the local public school district, officials of private schools and day-care centers” within the city, Mr. Keating said.
Those notifications are the responsibility of the county sheriff, he said.
Sharonville City Council's law committee is considering legislation that would permit the paid newspaper notices. The ads could include a picture, name, new address and a listing of the offenses of which the predator was convicted and their dates.
If approved by the law committee, the ordinance will go before city council for approval. Council could discuss it at Tuesday night's 7 p.m. regular council meeting at city hall.
The state law also has changed — effective Jan. 1 — and now allows a judge to designate habitual sexual offenders or sexual predators based on offenses committed years ago. If a judge determined that a decade ago a person committed serious sexual offenses, he could be declared a sexual predator in 1999, the law director said.
Mr. Keating said the task before the law committee is to balance the public's right to protect itself and the released offender's right to privacy.
Reading Police Chief Robert Huelsman, who once received notification of a predator living in that town, said he welcomes new ways to alert the public that such people are nearby “because the recidivism rate for pedophiles has been reported at near 80 percent.”
Reading, Loveland, Mount Healthy and Norwood have ordinances that expand on the state law. Ordinances in Reading and Loveland require notification of a sexual offender's presence in a three-block radius of his residence.
Norwood and Mount Healthy also extend the radius to three blocks and include the information as part of the police log — a public record reviewed by news agencies.
Placing notice in a newspaper would provide a way to notify the entire community, Mr. Keating said.
Norwood Law Director Timothy A. Garry Jr. said that “we did not make such a provision in our ordinance (to pay for newspaper ads), but I can see nothing (legally) improper about it. It is within a city's power to do so if it so chooses to spend money in that way toward public safety.”
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