Child molester seeking parole

The prosecutor sent the parole board a letter about the former resident of Howland.

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins hopes that items his office has provided are enough to persuade the Ohio Parole Board to deny parole for child molester Clyde T. Bush.

Bush is a former Howland resident serving eight life prison sentences for 14 sex offenses against 10 children in the late 1980s.

Bush, 59, was 40 when placed in the state-prison system in March 1990 on eight counts of rape, five counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of attempted rape — all involving children between age 2 and 5.

The parole board will consider releasing Bush on parole sometime this month, and the prosecutor’s office is not permitted to speak to the parole board during that phase, Watkins said.

If the board grants parole, Watkins’ office will ask for a hearing to argue why Bush should not be released, Watkins said.

Bush sometimes helped his wife watch children at her day care on Anderson Drive and was sometimes alone with the children while his wife went to doctor’s visits or to the store, according to documents investigators prepared in 1989.

Boys and girls told investigators that Bush sexually assaulted them.

“[Clyde] hurts me,” one 3-year-old boy told his parents in 1987.

In a videotaped confession made before he took a lie-detector test, Bush admitted being only partially dressed with certain children and touching them inappropriately.

Many of the incidents started out with the child sitting on his lap, he said.

The incidents escalated to a point where sexual conduct occurred, he told two detectives from the Howland Police Department, including Paul Monroe, now Howland’s police chief.

Bush was evaluated in January 1990 by a psychologist who said Bush was sane at the time he committed the acts.

“I write you now to save future children,” Watkins wrote to the parole board in March 1990. “Hopefully all the children will have forgotten the terror and pain inflicted on them by Clyde Bush.”

Watkins included the letter in materials he sent to the parole board last month to oppose Bush’s release.

Watkins said he hopes the parole board isn’t fooled by Bush the way parents were fooled by him for more than two years.

He said Trumbull County residents want a guarantee that Bush will never abuse children again, “and you can make the world safe for our children by never letting Clyde Bush out,” Watkins wrote.

“And if any of you should entertain his release, please read this letter and please honestly ask yourself the following question: Would you release Clyde Bush to live next door to your own children or grandchildren? If your answer is no, your decision should be easy.”

runyan@vindy.com