Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Ohio Supreme Court: Sex offender does not have to move
COLUMBUS (AP) — A sex offender may not be booted from a home within 1,000 feet of a school if he owned it and committed his crime before the distance restriction became law, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.
In a 6-1 decision, the court said officials in Green Township near Cincinnati were wrong to make a man convicted of sexual battery move from the home where he had lived with his family for 14 years.
Gerry Porter was convicted of sexual battery in 1999. Part of the property where he lived fell within the 1,000-foot limit established by the Legislature in 2003.
The court stopped short of deciding whether the rule was intended to be retroactive, which would raise questions of its constitutionality.