Appeals court reaffirms decision on Clinton County sex offender classification

The Twelfth District Court of Appeals has re-affirmed a prior decision addressing the classification of an Indiana man as a Tier III juvenile sex offender when he was a minor. 

In June 2006, a 17-year-old defendant was convicted of rape and committed to the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS). In December 2006, the defendant was transferred from DYS to Lighthouse Youth Center at Paint Creek (PCYC) for sex offender treatment. Subsequently, he was classified a Tier III juvenile sex offender, requiring lifetime registration. The defendant was transferred from PCYC back to DYS in August 2008. His motion to vacate the Tier III classification was later denied. 

On appeal, the Twelfth District agreed that the juvenile court improperly classified the defendant as a Tier III sex offender before he was released from DYS. The appellate court declined to overturn the classification, however, because the defendant failed to raise the argument by directly appealing his classification as required by Ohio law. The defendant then filed a motion asking the appellate court to reconsider its decision. 

In a unanimous decision published this week, Judge Robert A. Hendrickson re-affirmed the appellate court's prior judgment. While the appellate court acknowledged that the defendant may have raised another valid error in the juvenile court proceedings, the error would not change the end result in the case. The defendant still had to raise the argument by directly appealing his classification as required by Ohio law. Presiding Judge H.J. Bressler and Judge Robert P. Ringland concurred in the opinion. 

The decision of the Twelfth District Court of Appeals affirmed a sex offender classification imposed upon an Indiana man when he was a minor.