Cuyahoga deputies short-handed as they check on sex offenders

11-20-2009 Ohio:

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County has the most sex offenders in Ohio, but only two full-time deputies regularly check on the 1,416 people considered the worst offenders.

Other large Ohio counties have fewer offenders than Cuyahoga's 3,300 but use more deputies to perform the state-mandated address verifications for Tier III offenders such as rapists. Franklin County uses five; Summit and Hamilton counties each use four.

Residents on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland never knew Anthony Sowell was a convicted sex offender until police unearthed 11 bodies from his property.

Neighbors questioned why they weren't notified by the Sheriff's Office about Sowell's violent past. He served 15 years in prison for attempted rape. Those residents never knew because Sowell moved into the house after getting out of prison in 2005 -- three years before a law took effect that would have notified neighbors about his past.

Sowell was required to register his address with deputies every three months. He did it most recently on Sept. 2. A deputy verified it Sept. 22 -- eight hours before prosecutors say Sowell attacked a woman in his home.

The two Cuyahoga County deputies who knock on doors nearly every day said the law requires them to spend considerable time checking low-level offenders instead of the most dangerous offenders.

"This is a process sometimes," Deputy Marty Lutz said. "Our best efforts could be spent elsewhere. The laws need to be more specific. We only enforce them, not make policy."

State law requires people convicted of sex offenses to be classified in one of three groupings. The classification is based on a person's conviction and criminal history. Tier I offenders are considered the least dangerous, for crimes such as voyeurism and sexual imposition. Tier III is for the most crimes, such as rape or kidnapping a minor.

Tier I and Tier II sex offenders are required to register their addresses once a year with the sheriff's offices, and whenever they move.

A 2008 law -- known as the Adam Walsh Act, named after the Florida boy who was abducted and killed in 1981 -- forced Tier III offenders to personally register their address every 90 days. Deputies are required to perform spot checks every year if the address is unchanged.

But if an address changes, the law requires deputies to verify it. Then notices are mailed to every address within a 1,000-feet radius of the offender's home.

Since Sowell was already living on Imperial Avenue when the law changed, deputies were not required to inform his neighbors about his criminal record and Tier III status.

Some Tier III offenders move three or four times each year, requiring additional verifications and notices to be mailed to new addresses, Deputy Rodney Blanton said.

"It's just the two of us for 3,500 offenders," Blanton said. "We're stretched thin."

Cuyahoga County spends about $100,000 each year to mail postcards to homes, schools and commercial buildings near offenders, said sheriff's Lt. Don Michalosky, who heads the Sex Offender Unit.

The office sends between 4,000 and 5,000 notices each week, but the number can be as high as 9,000, Michalosky added. Two deputies and two civilian clerks perform the work.

Many other counties in Ohio contract the work to a private company. Watch Systems LLC of Louisiana handles the mail notifications for about 70 of Ohio's 88 counties and the e-mail notifications for all counties, said Bob Cornwell, head of the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association.

Cuyahoga County began negotiations in June and is close to reaching a deal with the company to handle the mailings, Michalosky said.

Hamilton County uses free labor to conduct many of its checks. Full-time deputies perform the checks, but the county also requires every special deputy to donate eight hours a month to the detail. That allows four deputies to do the work every day, spokesman Steve Barnett said.

Special deputies are sworn law enforcement officers who have a commission with arrest powers that allows them to carry a firearm. But unlike traditional deputies, they are not paid and do not typically work in a formal capacity for the county sheriff.

Most sheriffs use them to supplement their ranks for special events, such as funerals and parades. The rosters are usually filled by retired officers who use the commission to get private security jobs.

The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office has more than 100 special deputies, and none perform any official work for the office.

Verifying addresses is time consuming. On a recent shift, Lutz and Blanton verified about 10 addresses.

They started on Cleveland's West Side and ended up in Cleveland Heights. Many people didn't answer doors when Lutz and Blanton knocked. Several spoke with the deputies and confirmed that an offender lived in the home or apartment.

A man on West 47th Street had no idea that a Tier III offender lived across the street from him until Lutz gave him a notice.

"He just moved in there," the man said about the offender. "If his victim is a kid, I want to know."

After an address for a Tier III offender is verified, deputies leave notices on doors of immediate neighbors and at the police station and school board in the city.

Lutz wishes more time could be spent verifying addresses and less on paperwork.

"There has to be a better way," he said. "We have to keep after these people."

The addresses of sex offenders registered in Cuyahoga County are available online through the sheriff's Web site. But residents may not know about the sex offenders living near them for several reasons, Lutz said

"Sometimes people in the poorer neighborhoods don't have computers," Lutz said. "In some places, people are less inclined to answer the door. They immediately think the worst that they're in trouble."

Deputies check on scores of what Lutz calls "Romeo and Juliet" cases, in which men, typically in their late teens or early 20s, were convicted of having consensual sex with underage girls and are classified as Tier I or Tier II offenders. Some neighbors don't seem as bothered by those types of cases, he said, and deputies think their time would be better spent checking on people who molested children or forcibly raped women.

"We want the public to have confidence," Lutz said. "The law is universally covering everybody. The system need an overhaul. The threats are the violent people and the ones who have sex with children."

Blanton said he has noticed a difference in people's behaviors ever since police found the 11 bodies in Sowell's home and that many more are willing to answer questions when deputies show up. Prior to the discovery, many people refused to take the notices, he said.

"Everybody wants to know now about who is living near them," Blanton said. "Now it looks like everybody has woken up. They all want to help now." ..Source.. Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer