Hottinger explains Ohio's child predator law

I took a pop at the law that permits government to go after a teenager as a sex predator for a minor offense when I wrote about it here 10/9/08. I said it was Jay Hottinger's badly written law at fault.

Well, it's a lot more complicated than that. After exchanging correspondence with Jay and his legal assistant I have concluded that the law is indeed imperfect and Jay may have contributed to that imperfection by not being able - any more than any other legislator who voted for it - to envision the loophole that allows prosecutors such as Ken Oswalt to snare a child into the category of sexual predator for inappropriate behavior. Also, that this law will be revised by the Ohio legislature.

Here are are three key paragraphs from Jay's letter to me as they relate to the prosecution of a local teenager under Megan's Law, which he authored, and which was revised under the title Adam Walsh Law:

"I can tell you with 100% certainty that as I was writing the bill, as it was being debated, and as it was being passed with broad and overwhelming bi-partisan support in 2001- the discussion was always on these young people doing very dangerous and serious adult-like crimes.
 
"I was not involved in the Adam Walsh writing but I can tell you that no legislator ever envisioned an incident like our current local situation being used to prosecute a young person as a sex offender and having to register. 
 
"This case is a classic example of why are laws in Ohio are called the Ohio Revised Code.  I believe there certainly needs to be some revision as while this girl broke the law and there needs to be some form of consequences - to label her a sex offender and to have to register for 20 years is tragic and absurd.  I am certainly not condoning her behavior but this possible sentence is not in balance with the offense."

At this link you can read Jay's letter and an explanation by his legislative aide of the laws in question.

Licking County stands out among bad governments

When Licking County's zealous prosecutor took advantage of a quirk in a Licking County state legislator's badly written law to snare a 15-year-old girl as a sexual predator, (which I wrote about yesterday) I suspect he didn't know it would be a world event.

AP picked it up from the Advocate's report and it has been a subject of interest from New Jersey to Spokane, from Alabama to Canada, and recently it has jumped the ocean to England. Google News claims to have listed 223 news articles about this event as of this morning.

Only one reason for such widespread interest and that is the depths to which government - our local government - has sunk. We are an oddity in a world filled with bad governments.

Let us reflect on our world reputation when our county prosecutor, Ken Oswalt, and our state representative, Jay Hottinger, ask for re-election.

Government mind control showcased by county prosecutor

The extent to which government has gone in its attempt to control the thoughts of citizens is showcased in today's Advocate by the report headlined Girl, 15, accused of sending nude photos over phone.

It's about the local court's prosecution of a kid who sent nude photos of herself via cell phone to some other kids. Charged with two felonies, she could be labeled a sex offender and put under government behavior control for 20 years.

A sexual offender? And the other kids who got the photos? The report indicated that even they could be charged. Doesn't it make you feel good to have government looking over your shoulder, protecting your morals and guiding your thoughts?

This likely is a kid who, when opening her e-mail is drowning in spam that wants to know if she'd like to buy pills to increase the size of her penis, salves to make her lover more sensitive, and any other slimy crap that can be imagined by basement-level pervs throughout the world.

Why doesn't government get that stuff off everyone's computer instead of regulating what citizens say (in words and pictures) in private over their private phones and computers?

As I understand government's mind-control capability, you can be charged as a perv for downloading photos and written materials that don't meet standards set by high-thinking moralists who oversee state and federal governments. Yet the perverted spam rolls on like a river. Don't tell me government couldn't stop it. But better headlines for government are to be had in local grunts coming after local citizens. What a crock.

I'm not saying the girl should have done what she did, but I know at age 15 if I had a cell phone and I knew a girl who had a cell phone I would surely have encouraged her to be a bit naughty with it. More than a bit, in fact.

Back then, though, our phones were on party lines with live operators. So my chances of naughtiness, phone-wise, would have been slim to none.

Complicating such an endeavor would have been my parents and her parents who likely would thrash all unclean thoughts out of us if we got caught.

Which points to the differences of then and now. Parents took care of their kids' morals and behavior and local government wouldn't have dared to poke around in our private activities or thoughts. Back then, such notions were still merely sci-fi.

All of which makes this a good time to review The Price of Freedom.

Defective fire departments - ignorance or ego at work?

Once upon a time there was a house fire near the city of Newark Ohio that should inspire a new way of regulating the activities of volunteer fire departments.

I do not understand exactly why Newark Township did not respond until almost after the fact. I've read all the news reports, but that only confuses me more. Maybe the reporters don't understand the cause or they can't say, at least not in a way that I can understand.

They seem to be tip-toeing around and behind the various egos within the township and/or city fire departments. It's long past time when someone came out from behind the mumbo jumbo and tells the rest of us what really happened on the morning when a Newark Township home belonging to a Newark city firefighter was heavily damaged by fire.

You don't have to be a fireman or to understand the exact nature of a "run card" - on which this travesty is being blamed - to know that someone screwed up because of ignorance or ego. Perhaps local governments are also open to those same ignorance and/or ego charges

Either way, the loss of this home demonstrates that the regulation of fire departments is defective. That can be fixed here, at the city and county level, or maybe we'll fool around until the state seizes this opportunity to create more power and more bureaucracy for itself.

Better that we get the real problems out in the open here, and then solve them. Let's do it before another home is unnecessarily damaged or destroyed.

Where robbing a bank equates with murder

Two guys robbed a bank in Dillon Falls. Muskingum County deputies chase the van they were driving to Mount Sterling. One guy jumps out and fires at deputies, who shoot and kill him. The other guy gives up without any problems.

Lucky him. He gets charged with the murder of the guy deputies killed. Muskingum County Prosecutor Michael Haddox said, according to the news report, that "a person who causes the death of another as a proximate result of committing a felony can be charged with murder." (quoting the reporter)

If Haddox is accurate and this news report is accurate, then we have a problem. Not just in Zanesville, but in Ohio. We have a very bad law if a murder charge can be brought against someone other than the triggerman.

Whether it can or not, citizens, even bank robbers, deserve protection from runaway prosecutors, and that could be the problem here. There ought to be a law, if there isn't one already, to punish negligent office holders. This might be a case similar to the one involving college soccer team members getting drug through hell on earth by some irresponsible prosecutor who is grandstanding for votes or for some reason other than accurate law enforcement. This kind of prosecutor should at the very least be cast from office and we need a very bold law that says so.

I'm not saying that's the case in Zanesville. But this is too weird to be believed, knowing no more about it than the facts of one newspaper article. Maybe something else influenced the prosecutor's charge. So it bears watching; there's something wrong with the law or the way it was applied or the way it was reported. Whatever and whomever need to be corrected.