Grand jury drops sex offender's charges

A grand jury decided to drop the charges.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A Trumbull County grand jury has decided charges against Charles Gorham, a convicted sex offender who had been charged with failure to register his whereabouts, will not go forward.
Gorham was bound over to the grand jury after a preliminary hearing April 13 before Judge Thomas P. Gysegem of Warren Municipal Court.
Assistant Prosecutor Traci Timko-Rose, during the hearing, argued that Gorham did not tell authorities where he was moving 20 days before leaving the McDonald home in which he was staying, as required by law.
The grand jury, in a report released late this week, decided to drop the charges against Gorham. Grand jury proceedings, as a rule, are not open to the public, so it is not known why the charges were dropped.
Speculation
Timko-Rose, however, said the grand jury could have, speculatively, taken issue with the same aspect of the case as did the judge during the hearing.
Gorham, Timko-Rose said, was served notice to leave the McDonald home the same day he was charged with not registering his whereabouts -- an issue raised during the preliminary hearing.
Gorham had informed officials of his move to the 700 McDonald Ave., home in McDonald, which is occupied by his sister, on two previous occasions. The house is less than 1,000 feet from a school. Anyone designated by a court as a sexual predator cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school.
The first time Gorham registered the address, he moved before court action could be taken against him. The second time, the sheriff's department filed court action, leading to a judge's order barring him from living at the sister's house.
According to police officials and court testimony by Gorham's sister, officers serving notice of the court order to Gorham on March 31 were told he no longer lived at the address -- leading to the charges of not registering his whereabouts.
jgoodwin@vindy.com