A scary story reported by the Toledo Blade about what sounds to me like a “no due process” branding of citizens with the label of sex offender. The Corrections Sentencing blog pointed me to this story in the local Ohio newspaper, which includes the quotes:
A recently enacted law allows county prosecutors, the state attorney general, or, as a last resort, alleged victims to ask judges to civilly declare someone to be a sex offender even when there has been no criminal verdict or successful lawsuit.
and
A civilly declared offender, however, could petition the court to have the person’s name removed from the new list after six years if there have been no new problems and the judge believes the person is unlikely to abuse again.
OK. So from the frist part I gather someone in Ohio thinks it’s a good idea to brand someone a Sex Offender, without a trial or even a civil lawsuit? Does the accused even get to know he is about to be labeled a Sex Offender, or is this some sort of crazy ex parte hearing? What standards does a judge use to label this person a Sex Offender? Can the accused present his side of the story?
The second quote, however, lets us know it’s OK because, if someone who has a grudge against you gets a judge to label you a pervert, you have a possible remedy… 6 years down the road.
There’s probably more to this legislation than the paper is reporting, or at least I hope so. But if their reporting is even 50% accurate, this sounds downright Orwellian.