originally posted 5/2/2010
I’m a convicted adult sex offender in the State of Ohio. The problem is not that I mind registering as a sex offender, it is the Ohio Sex Offender Law that angers me. Here, all sex offenders are in one category. Even though my victim is an adult, I’m treated as a child molester through public notification within the community and I cannot move into a neighborhood with parks, schools, etc., that have children present.
If I have to move, I have to notify the county sheriff’s department to get clearance, just to move into any town, city, etc. It is a problem. I am basically a prisoner in my own house and in fear of the neighbors through the community notification process. It is Ohio’s Laws on Sex Offenders, there should be two separate laws, one for the child molesters and one for the offenders against adults.
I am in sex offender therapy because of my crime, I sought it out because I need treatment for me and I am still being punished by the law through society. I have twin one year old daughters, for whom at the time, I had to care for because of my wife’s medical and mental health issues. I asked Children’s Services for their help in caring for my daughters and now, my wife’s health is a lot better and I have not got my daughters at home.
It is because Children’s Services knows I’m a sex offender, even though I have repeatedly explained to them, my victim is an adult. I’m seen as a child molester by Children’s Services and in my heart I’ve lost my daughters to them, because in my heart, they’re trying to adopt them out by pressuring my wife and me, to the point of explosion, through putting my wife and me against each other in a domestic violence charge, permanently losing the daughters through the court system.
I don’t know what to do to change the sex offender laws and to get my daughters home with us. I love my daughters and would go to extremes to care for them. In addition, I have done everything possible to comply with Children’s Services, to get my daughters home and they’re not here and I think it is because of my sex offender label or stigma. I need help, to get them home and it is breaking my heart.