OH- Indictment dismissed for non-sex offender who didn't register

3-4-2009 Ohio:

NEWARK — Danny Seals won’t be returning to prison, but that’s only a minor victory in his battle to be rid of the “sex offender” label.

The state dismissed an indictment this morning that alleges Seals, 49, failed to register and provide notice of a change of address — both requirements imposed on those named in the Ohio Sex Offender Registry and Notification.

Licking County Assistant Prosecutor Alice Bond said that her office had no plans to reindict Seals, as had been done in December, and that some errors made by the state, including placing Seals in the incorrect middle-tier of sex offender, made the dismissal prudent.

Seals and his attorney Eric Brehm had a different take on the ouster.

“At the end of the day, you know why you’re walking,” Brehm said to his client after the paperwork was signed. “It’s because it’s unfair.”

Seals was convicted of one count of kidnapping and four counts of abduction for holding his estranged wife hostage, along with two kids and a woman briefly, during a 1994 standoff with police in Mount Vernon. There was no allegation of sexual motivation or even a mention of the word “sex” in the police report or subsequent investigative materials.

When he was released in 1999, Seals learned he had been classified as a child victim offender under Megan's Law, the predecessor of the Adam Walsh Act.

There is no separate registry for child victim offenders so they are rolled into the state SORN database and tasked with sex offender registration requirements — and their notoriety too.

Seals contacted The Advocate by letter from his cell at the Licking County Justice Center in September and in an interview at the jail later that month talked about the persecution he suffered because of his picture on the Web site.

His bond was modified to personal recognizance and he was released from jail Oct. 3, but the case was still active until today.

Brehm believes that local prosecution was a mistake that has now been corrected.

“Occasionally, the government gets it wrong,” Brehm wrote in a statement to The Advocate. “Mr. Seals has complied with what he believed was required of him. In all fairness, this matter should be and is over.” ..News Source.. by staff reports