The case of a West Side sex offender reveals potentially significant loopholes in Ohio’s law requiring such felons to register the address of their residence.
Timothy Phillips was charged with rape and gross sexual imposition in 1991 for assaults on three boys, then ages 11, 12 and 12. Court records show that Phillips pleaded guilty to gross sexual imposition and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Phillips was charged again in 2012, this time after he propositioned a detective posing as a teen online. Phillips pleaded guilty to a felony importuning charge and again received probation.
State law says that a sex offender can’t live within 1,000 feet of a school, but the court determined that Phillips was living too close to a school building. So in 2014, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Frye ordered Phillips to “vacate” his house at 198 S. Westmoor Ave.
Westgate Alternative Elementary School, at 3080 Wicklow Road, is 735 feet from Phillips’ address, according to court records. And Franklin County auditor’s records show that Phillips still owns the home on Westmoor Avenue.
Under the state’s sex-offender registry law, the definition of residence is not entirely clear. Phillips indicates that because he does not sleep at his house, it is not technically his residence. “I’m homeless,” he said. “I stop by to check and maintain the property — 20 minutes a day.”
Ohio’s searchable sex-offender registry is maintained in each county by sheriffs’ offices and statewide by the Ohio attorney general’s office. The state registry lists 17,450 people and is available at http://bit.ly/2eSdEkD.
WBNS observed Phillips at the Westmoor Avenue address multiple times during school hours. Neighbors on Westmoor Avenue have kept a log of Phillips’ comings and goings and have given it to Franklin County sheriff’s detectives.
WBNS cameras and observations by neighbors also confirmed that Phillips does not spend overnight hours at the house he owns. WBNS found that Phillips sleeps in his car in the parking lots of area stores.
“We asked the sheriff's office to document the visits,” said Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’B rien. “We believe he can't skirt the law. He's trying to skirt the court's order by not sleeping there.”
Gigi Lowry, who lives in Westgate near the Phillips house, is among several neighbors who are concerned about Phillips being at the house during school hours. “He should not be able to own a home near the schools,” she said.
Jordan Dawson, whose child attends Westgate Alternative Elementary, said that she is not familiar with Phillips but is concerned.
“Timothy Phillips? No, I've never heard the name, seen a picture or anything,” Dawson said. “If he’s convicted of something like that around here, everyone should know who this guy is and where he's living at.”
Another gap in the law is exposed by Phillips’ case: Westgate residents and parents of children at the school have no official way of knowing that Phillips is spending time in their neighborhood because he registers as "homeless," not at the Westmoor Avenue address.
Columbus City Schools notify parents of schoolchildren when sex offenders register an address close to a school. But based on the registry, school officials would not have known that Phillips owns a house near a school.
O’Brien, believing that Phillips is in violation of the court order to register as a sex offender, has filed a contempt-of-court motion in the case. ..Source.. by Nathan Baca
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