By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEBANON - A Warren County judge handed down a six-month sentence to the man accused of molesting more than 20 girls at the Salvation Army's Camp Swoneky in Oregonia, prompting outrage from some of the parents present.

Rafael Jackson could have received up to four years.

In addition to jail, Judge Neal Bronson ordered the 20-year-old Cincinnati man to complete four to six months of residential treatment for sex offenders at the Community Correctional Center on Ohio 63.

He will be on probation for three years after his release from CCC, and will be required to report his address to authorities for 10 years because he was designated a sex offender under state law.

Noting that Jackson was 18 when he committed the offenses in 2001, Bronson rejected Assistant Prosecutor Carolyn Duvelius' request to require Jackson to report his whereabouts for life.

Jackson, a recreation director at the camp at the time, was arrested last June after a lengthy investigation spurred by complaints that he had inappropriately touched young female campers, exposed himself to many and solicited some for sex.

The girls involved were 12 to 15 years old. and were attending the church-based camp during the height of the camping season.

Sheriff's detectives interviewed more than 20 girls who accused Jackson of improprieties, and charges were filed involving 10 of the strongest cases, Duvelius said. Eight charges were dropped in a plea bargain last month.

Jackson said nothing at his sentencing hearing in Warren County Common Pleas Court. His lawyer, Ayanna Love, sought probation.

"He sees what he's done is wrong," she said, adding that Jackson felt he could be rehabilitated through his church.

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com