wtap.com: From Three Back to Five: Tens of thousands of sex offenders in the state of Ohio will be reclassified...as the result of a state supreme court ruling.
Right now, Ohio has three different categories in which registered sex offenders are placed. It used to have five. Now, with a ruling by the state high court on the constitutionality of a tough new law approved a few years ago, the classification list will go back to five.
"We have, I believe, three individuals in our county, who went from one category under the five (tier system) to the three (tier system), and they were due to drop off of being required to register," says one Ohio county Sheriff Larry Mincks. "Now, we have those three individuals who are going to go back to the old category, and they're not going to be required to register at all."
What may be more of a problem is the administration of these changes. When the law was approved, there was no money allocated for its oversight by local law enforcement officials. And the offenders must be notified of the changes.
"The attorney general will send out letters to all these people," Sheriff Mincks says. "If these letters came back as undeliverable, or are no longer at that address, then, it is mandated by the sheriff's office to find where those people are, and to notify them of that change in their registrations."
The court ruling does not affect any offenders who were convicted after the law went into effect at the beginning of 2008.
More challenges to Ohio's Sex Offender laws are still under review by the Ohio Supreme Court.
