By Tim Bonfield
Enquirer staff writer

According to a senior rights group, Ohio ranks third in the nation in a dubious distinction - convicted sex offenders living in nursing homes.

And in many cases, other nursing home residents have no idea the ex-offenders are there.

MORE INFORMATION

• To see the national study about sex offenders in America's nursing homes, check Web site • To check the addresses of registered sex offenders, contact your county sheriff's office, or: • In Ohio, the attorney general's office posts a statewide list at Web site. • In Kentucky, people can call the Sex Offender Alert Line at 866-564-5652 or check the Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry Web site at Web site • In Indiana, people can check the Indiana Sheriffs' Sex Offender Registry at Web site.

"Our study dispels the myths that only old offenders are being placed in nursing homes and that just because they are old, they no longer pose a threat to others," says Wes Bledsoe, president of A Perfect Cause, a consumer group based in Oklahoma City.

After comparing sex offender registries in 37 states against a list of nursing home addresses, the group reported today that 380 rapists, child molesters and other convicted sex offenders are living in 289 nursing homes nationwide.

That list includes 39 sex offenders in Ohio, six in Indiana and three in Kentucky. It shows 11 living in Hamilton County nursing homes and one in Kenton County.

Bledsoe said none of these offenders should be allowed to live in nursing homes open to the public.

Instead they should be served in separate homes with extra security and specially trained staff.

Until such homes can be developed, nursing homes should be required to perform criminal background checks on nursing home residents and to notify residents if a sex offender lives among them, Bledsoe says.

But others say that many of the changes promoted by A Perfect Cause would be impractical, perhaps illegal, and certainly controversial.

"It's a question of whose rights trump whose," said Peter Van Runkle, president of the Ohio Health Care Association - a group that represents nursing homes statewide.

"It's a really tough question. If I was a family member, you bet I'd want to know," he said.

"But even ex-offenders may need nursing home care. I could see an ombudsman saying that a notification rule would violate a patient's right to privacy."

In Ohio, 39 sex offenders represent a tiny fraction of the estimated 80,000 people living in nursing homes statewide. Those sex offenders are in nursing homes for the same reasons as anyone else - they are seriously ill or disabled and unable to care for themselves.

While the threat may be rare, Bledsoe insists the risk is real. Not all nursing home patients are completely bedridden. Residents sometimes do attack other residents.

In May in Brooklyn, prosecutors said a 43-year-old male nursing home resident who had both legs amputated confessed to raping a 78-year-old woman living there.

Bledsoe says he has found no reports in Ohio or Kentucky of sex offenders who have committed crimes while living in nursing homes. Even so, he says other residents should have the right to know when a sex offender is living down the hall.

But unlike homeowners who get postcards sent by county sheriffs to inform them of registered sex offenders in their neighborhood, a single notification is sent to a nursing home. It then is up to the administrative staff to decide whether and how to notify residents, said Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.

Nursing homes must do criminal background checks on staff members, but are not required - and may not be allowed - to do background checks on residents.

Requiring such background checks or requiring nursing homes to pass along sheriff-sent notifications about sex offenders probably would require changes in state law, perhaps even federal law, Van Runkle said.

Enquirer staff writer Jane Prendergast contributed to this story.

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com