2 Cuyahoga deputy sheriffs check on sex offenders

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ohio’s most populous county has just two deputy sheriffs to check regularly on 1,416 of the worst sex offenders, an issue highlighted by charges against a serial murder suspect who was living in a house with 11 bodies.

Other large Ohio counties have fewer offenders than the 3,300 in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, but use more deputies to perform state-mandated address verifications for the worst offenders such as rapists.

Franklin County, which includes Columbus, uses five deputies. Summit County, including Akron, and Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, each use four.

In Cleveland, neighbors of Anthony Sowell were unaware that he was a convicted sex offender until police unearthed 11 bodies from his property. He has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder.

Neighbors questioned why they weren’t notified about Sowell’s past. He served 15 years in prison for attempted rape. Residents never knew because Sowell moved into the house after getting out of prison in 2005, three years before a law took effect that would have notified neighbors about his past.

Sowell was required to register his address with deputies every three months. He did it most recently Sept. 2. A deputy verified it Sept. 22 — eight hours before prosecutors say Sowell attacked a woman in his home, a case which led to the search of his home Oct. 29.

The two Cuyahoga County deputies who knock on doors nearly every day said the law requires them to spend considerable time checking low-level offenders instead of the most dangerous offenders.

“This is a process sometimes,” Deputy Marty Lutz said. “Our best efforts could be spent elsewhere. The laws need to be more specific. We only enforce them, not make policy.”

State law requires people convicted of sex offenses to be classified in one of three groupings. The classification is based on a person’s conviction and criminal history.

Tier I offenders are considered the least dangerous, for crimes such as voyeurism and sexual imposition. Tier III is for the most crimes, such as rape or kidnapping a minor.

Tier I and Tier II sex offenders are required to register their addresses once a year with the sheriff’s offices, and whenever they move.

A 2008 law requires Tier III offenders to personally register their address every 90 days. Deputies are required to perform spot checks every year if the address is unchanged.

But if an address changes, the law requires deputies to verify it. Then notices are mailed to every address within a 1,000-feet radius of the offender’s home.

Since Sowell was already living at his family’s home when the law changed, deputies were not required to inform his neighbors about his criminal record and offender status.