Court: Time can wait for fleeing criminals

July 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that defendants who elude prosecution by hiding in another state or changing their names can be charged with alleged crimes discovered after they fled, even if the legal time limit for filing the charges has lapsed.

In a 4-2 decision, the court said a state law that freezes the clock on the time limits when a suspect is a fugitive applies not only to charges already pending, but also those for which the suspect has not yet been investigated.

The opinion reverses lower court rulings in the case of Larry Bess of North Royalton, who fled to Georgia and assumed a false identity in 1989 to avoid being charged in the rape of his stepdaughter. The high court ruled that Bess, now 70, can also be prosecuted on charges accusing him of the rape in 1982 to 1989 of his stepson.

The stepson came forward with the allegations in 2007, after Bess had been arrested after more than 17 years on the lam. The time limit on prosecuting such crimes is six years from the date when they occurred.

The lower courts ruled the prosecution time limit should be suspended only for the existing case involving the stepdaughter, not the alleged crimes against the stepson.

But in Tuesday’s decision, the Supreme Court justices ruled that the state law that allows the time limit to be extended “contains no language suggesting that its application should be limited only to those cases where the accused sought to avoid a particular prosecution.”

“Nor is there language suggesting a limitation to only those prosecutions that had been commenced before the accused absconded or to those cases where the state can prove that the accused intended to avoid prosecution for a specific crime,” the decision says.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s spokesman Ryan Miday said the ruling means the office will prosecute Bess for the alleged rape of his stepson.

Bess is serving 38 years to life for rape and gross sexual imposition involving his stepdaughter and is eligible for parole in 2042. A message seeking comment was left Tuesday for his attorney.