2 sex offender cases to be reviewed

12-18-2009 Ohio:

The Ohio Supreme Court accepted two Richland County sex offender reclassification cases for review Wednesday.

Jeffrey Elko and Dennis McGuire are challenging their classifications by the Ohio attorney general, under the Adam Walsh Act.

Richland County Assistant Prosecutor Kirsten Pscholka-Gartner said the cases are among a series of local sex offender reclassification challenges likely to be accepted for review by the state court.

Similar appeals across Ohio are before the court, pending its eventual decision in State v. Bodyke, a Huron County reclassification case the court heard this year.

Richland County Common Pleas Judges James DeWeese and James Henson issued rulings in a series of sex offender classification challenges filed here in 2008. Both judges ruled that Senate Bill 10, also known as the Adam Walsh Act, violated the state constitution's prohibition against applying laws retroactively.

The Fifth District Court of Appeals later reversed those decisions, saying the local judges erred. ..Source..