OH- Sex offenders don't have to move, court rules

7-10-2008 Ohio:

LANCASTER, Ohio — Four convicted sex offenders who are violating state law by living within 1,000 feet of elementary schools don’t have to move because they committed their crimes before the law took effect in 2003, a state appeals court ruled.

The 5th District Court of Appeals ruling conforms with an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that declared the state’s sex-offender residency restrictions could not apply retroactively.

Lancaster City Prosecutor Terre Vandervoort filed a lawsuit in Fairfield County Common Pleas Court to force the four to move. Last year, Judge Chris A. Martin ruled they must move, and then allowed them stay put while they appealed his ruling.

The appeals court ruling June 9 means that Virgil E. Larson Jr., Darren L. Coey, William E. Rudd and Jerry L. Groves may remain in their homes.

In the meantime, Larson is scheduled for trial Aug. 19 on new charges. A county grand jury in February indicted him on two counts of rape and six counts of gross sexual imposition. He is accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old neighbor girl who was in the third grade at Cedar Heights Elementary School. ..News Source.. by The Columbus Dispatch