The state has about 23,000 registered sex offenders.

The state has about 23,000
registered sex offenders.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBUS — More Ohio felons will be classified as sexual predators under a new state law that went into effect Tuesday that also will require the state’s sheriffs to notify more people about where offenders live.

The Legislature passed the law last year to comply with a federal one that requires states to increase registration requirements by 2009 or lose some federal funding. The federal law is named after Adam Walsh, a 6-year-old Florida boy who was abducted and killed in 1981.

The state has about 23,000 registered sex offenders under eight classifications. Under the new law, offenders will be classified under a three-tier system. It will require longer registration times for felons and mandatory community notification for some offenders once considered low level.

“This is going to increase the workload of sheriffs by 60 percent because 60 percent of the low-level registered offenders now have been put into the highest tier,” said Robert Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association.

“We didn’t fight it because we understand the greater need to know by the community,” Cornwell said.

A few offenders have managed to block the new penalties from affecting them for now.

On Monday, judges in Cleveland ordered the state and local sheriff to not take action against two offenders until they can have hearings.

One case involved a man who was 18 when he pleaded guilty in 2000 to sexual battery and corruption of a minor. Dillon Chupa was labeled a sexually oriented offender, requiring him to register with the county sheriff every year for 10 years.

The new law requires him to register with the sheriff every few months and the sheriff, in turn, would have to notify the neighbors of where he lives and works, said lawyer Larry Zukerman. He also must register for the rest of his life.

Zukerman said the law effectively throws out the ruling by the judge who found Chupa was a low-level offender.

“This is a knee-jerk reaction which unconstitutionally violates people’s rights,” Zukerman said.

The Ohio Public Defender’s office, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Ohio Justice and Policy Center oppose the law because of the retroactive provisions. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected their challenge last month.

In Columbus, a judge has blocked the sheriff from notifying neighbors of one convicted sex offender reclassified under the new law.

The man was convicted of sexual battery nearly 10 years ago, was put on probation and has had no subsequent convictions. But sexual battery is now classified at the highest level under the new law and, like Chupa, requires him to register his address for life.

“It’s a mess created by politicians, and it’s going to be a mess for the courts to sort out,” Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Cain said Monday.