Keep 64-year-old Howland child rapist in prison, prosecutor says

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is again opposing parole for Clyde T. Bush, 64, formerly of Howland, who committed 14 sex offenses against 10 boys and girls in the late 1980s.

Bush, who received eight life sentences for eight rapes after pleading guilty in 1990 to crimes committed against children age 2 to 6, will get a parole hearing next month.

Bush was 40 years old when he was convicted of sexually assaulting children he sometimes watched at his wife’s day care on Anderson Drive in Howland whle his wife went to doctor’s visits or to the store, prosecutors said.

In materials Watkins has submitted to the Ohio Parole Board, Watkins said Bush, who was known as Tim, “repeatedly sexually preyed on the same or different children” for more than two years.

“There is no doubt that Clyde Bush, if prosecuted under today’s law, would receive a life-with-no-parole sentence [which was not available at that time],” Watkins said. “I make this statement with confidence because Clyde Bush gave a videotaped confession detailing his crimes.”

Watkins added, “He was cunning and deceitful in covering up his crimes for years and then blaming the children.”

Watkins said Bush maintained he didn’t need treatment for the things he did. “What he needs is incarceration and death in prison. To release him now at age 64, after only serving 25 years, would surely diminish the seriousness of his crimes,” Watkins said.

“Additionally, to release him into society would endanger toddlers and other little children he would troll,” Watkins said.

Paul Monroe, Howland police chief, who was lead investigator in the case, wrote a letter to the parole board in which he said Bush “forever traumatized, stole and destroyed the innocence of each of these children.

“Every one of these parents has suffered immeasurable mental distress, and all have had to carry the victimization of their children with them every day since they found out about the heinous crimes committed against their children.”