Sex offender in Struthers parade for judge's campaign remains jailed

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A registered sex offender is jailed without bond after he drove a judicial campaign pickup truck with juveniles in the back of it in the Struthers’ July 4th parade, to which the candidate said the offender showed up uninvited.

“I’m glad no one got hurt or was in any danger and that the process worked, and he’s now behind bars,” said Anthony D’Apolito, the Democratic challenger to Republican Judge Shirley J. Christian of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the Nov. 8 election.

D’Apolito, a magistrate and county juvenile court administrator, said he helped Struthers police apprehend James A. Bares, 41, on a charge that Bares violated a probation condition that bars him from knowingly being around children.

Bares was released from state prison April 13 on five years’ post-release control after being locked up for 18 months on two counts of gross sexual imposition, to which he had pleaded guilty.

D’Apolito said he’ll do a better job of screening his campaign helpers.