Springfield Township man claims Ohio’s sex offender parole law won’t allow visits with son
A Springfield Township man filed a federal lawsuit challenging Ohio’s sex offender parole law as unconstitutional because it forbids him from seeing his 14-year-old son.
The Ohio Justice and Policy Center filed the lawsuit on Wednesday on behalf of a 50-year-old former high school teacher who is listed as John Doe in court filings.
In 2014, Doe was convicted of two counts of gross sexual imposition involving an 18-year-old female student at the school where he taught. He has no other criminal history, according to the lawsuit.
Doe served a three-year prison term and had regular visits with wife and his son. The family spoke on the phone nearly every day and sent letters and emails.
Now that Doe is out of prison, he is forbidden from moving back to the family home or having any contact with his son. He could not send his son a card or call him on his 14th birthday. He is not allowed to possess his son’s photograph, the lawsuit stated.
“Mr. Doe’s conviction made him subject to five mandatory years of what is known in Ohio as post-release control,” the lawsuit stated. “Though his offense did not involve a minor, the conditions of Mr. Doe’s PRC include a full prohibition on contact with any minors without the permission of his supervising officer.”
Now Doe is asking U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett for a temporary restraining order that would stop parole officers from enforcing the law, and allow him to live with his wife and son in their Forest Park home.
“Mr. Doe has no history of abusing his son and poses no risk to him … his son will be eighteen — college-aged — by the time his father is allowed to speak with him on the phone, send him a letter, or give him a hug as he did while in prison,” the lawsuit stated.
Doe is also at risk of getting a divorce from his wife of 26 years because he cannot live in the same house as his son.
“Mrs. Doe has been forced to choose between spending time with her husband … and devoting attention to her son … She feels guilty spending nights away from her son, so she does not stay overnight at Mr. Doe’s residence,” the lawsuit states. “Mr. and Mrs. Doe love each other, but Mrs. Doe is considering divorce because Mr. Doe cannot live with her or help her raise their child.”
Doe filed the lawsuit against his parole officer and parole supervisor, and a regional administrator at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s adult parole authority office in Cincinnati.
In order to see his son, a parole officer told Doe that he must apply for a visit “in a controlled setting” that is supervised by a parole officer at Doe’s financial expense. Doe is unemployed and struggling financially. And during the visit, he would not be allowed to embrace his child as he could in prison, the lawsuit stated.
His parole officer would not allow Doe’s brother, a licensed social worker, to supervise weekly visits with his son. As a result, Doe has not seen his son for more than six months.
“Mr. Doe’s family has been torn apart as a result of his absence,” the lawsuit states. “His son misses his father and is suffering from anxiety because of the hardship caused by Mr. Doe’s absence.”
The lawsuit claims that parole officers have deprived Doe of his fundamental right to parent his son and have a spousal relationship as well as violated his right to due process.
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That is crazy. Probation officers w God complex. But it’s these kinds of crazy people that overreach that help get the laws ironed out. Not that it will help him now, when he needs it, but hopefully it will help the next guy.
This is a perfect example of cruel and unusual punishment. It is a violation of a very human right. This individual is clearly NOT a threat to his son unless he were to turn into an 18 year old female and still not much…the guy had sex with an consenting adult female after all!
Absurd as all this and all these restrictions/punishments are they are nothing more than public shamming to vividly illustrate and act as a lesson to others that the government owns you and that there is no actual freedom in the USA if the government decides to take yours away.
Learn this lesson or you too will join this list of American untouchables and become a second class citizen loathed, shunned, and hated!
It is horrible how the parole department has almost total control over the lives of parolees. My friend had an excellent job offer at a tattoo parlor, but his PO nixed it because there MIGHT be drug users who use the services there. Others couldn’t live with family members because grandchildren MIGHT visit there, I was also friends with two school teachers in a Michigan prison. How do you justify a law that criminalizes consensual sex between adults. The 18-year-old in the Ohio case could have sex with almost every other adult in her state, including police officers and judges who also hold positions of authority. In Michigan, the law is written so strangely that, for example, if there were twin brothers living in Bay City, and one had a teaching job in that school district, and the other taught in the Saginaw school district, they would both be free to date and have sex with legal age girls in the other district, but not in the district where they actually teach. There is also an exemption if the teacher is married to the student, even if that student happens to be an emancipated adult. I encouraged my friends to follow through with appeals on constitutional grounds that the law also violates the right to consent of the students themselves. The age of consent in Michigan is 16, so there are a lot of high school students who can legally consent to sex. The law doesn’t apply to colleges and universities either, even though there are students there under age 18. I’m sure in the OHIO case the public now labels him a child molester, even though his so-called victim was an adult. I would bet that the young woman involved is angry at the system as well.
Unbelievable situation and these probation officers actually think they are serving the public good. In the conduct of their jobs most do more damage than any sex offender could conceive of. This is what happens when we put our faith in man and his government.
Why not just go back to court and get permission to have contact ???. That’s what everyone else does !!??. Probation tried the same thing with me. But the Judge made it very clear that I had “No Restrictions” and Probation hated it, And tried every other way to violate me. . I was in court every month fighting Probation and their “Crooked” ways !!. They (Probation) figured out a way to get me (Convicted), But at least I made it off Probation. Now just trying to deal with all this “Registery” crap !!. Who would ever believe our “Government” could treat their CITIZENS so bad !!????.
Where are all the people who protested the breaking up families of illegals on the border. I went through the same thing unless you have a lot of money you don’t have a chance. Good luck Mr Doe.