Sex Offender story hieghtens thorny issues my first protest
I was going through my old news clippings and thought others might find this interesting although we never got a print on his views after our mission was accomplished, we feel we did see it through to the end in Coshocton. Written by Len Lacara managing editor If your the parent of young children or even if you arent-- the thought of a convicted sex offender at a school event is alarming. Local resident George Franks admitted he was at a Jan 7 wrestling meet at Coshocton High School. In an exclusive interview, Franks told the Tribune he gave a business card to an adult male who was interested in modeling. Sheriffs Deputies tell a different tale. They say they have reason to believe Franks passed out more than one card,and has approached teenaged boys in this town. By attending the wrestling meet, Franks violated his parole, and was arrested Thursday in Coshocton. He could be sent to prison for four years later this week. In the eyes of the law, Franks is a "sexually oriented offender". That means he was convicted of a sex crime, but is not considered a habitual offender or sexual predator. Franks claims his 2002 conviction in Franklin County was the result of a misunderstanding and that he doesn't stalk young men. The police don't believe him. The legal system will decide. The case has placed Coshocton into the national spot light. CNN aired a story about it Friday. As far as I know, we were the only media outlet who told Franks' side of the story. When the story broke, we had no official documents about his conviction. Rather than sensationalize the story, we chose to alert the public with a balanced report on Page One of Thursdays news paper. There has been a sudden surge of publicity surrounding sex offenders in Coshocton County. On Tuesday, two women staged a protest against Judge Evans. They say he was to lenient with the sentence of a man who raped a thirteen year old girl. William Cunning- ham served less than nine months of a three year prison term before Evans released him. The women want a law passed to expel all registered sex offenders from Coshocton County. As Kathy Dickerson reports in todays Tribune, there are 49 county residents in the states registry. I bet most people in town would support putting those 49 on a bus and escorting them out of town. But as satisfying as that thought may be, it's probably unconstitutional. Giving sex offenders the boot will not get rid of the problem. It would give false sense of security and make it easier for molesters who haven't been caught to prey on victims. And except for the most dangerous predators, you can't lock them in jail and throw away the key, as one Coshocton women suggested while the women were protesting. In most cases, if you do the crime, you do the time. That pays the debt to society, to use another cliche'. Sex crimes are different. Some predator' time behind bars has been extended if they've been deemed as likely to strike again. And what about those who have sex with willing teen agers? Legally, a teen who's one day shy of her 18th birthday cannot consent to sex with someone five years older. Should the man who slept with her be subject to the same social stigma as a predator rapist? I'd love to hear your answers to those questions, so please write. Mr. Franks may not be returning to Coshocton soon, but I suspect this subject will be around a long time. Len Lacara is managing editor of the Coshocton Tribune. You can reach him at (740) 295-3420 or e-mail him at llacara@nncogannett.com I want to make a note to all who read this, the door is still open on Lacaras part for comments to this article and well he's never corrected his own mis- givings of what we wanted and set out to do. Nor has he given in put on the changes I sought and with the groups help got accomplished within not just my community but other's as well. One thing's for sure though if your the guy doing the preying on innocence not yet lost, Lacara will try to cover your butt, especially if it means you get a one sided story, because to date Lacara never contacted the victim who's mother did contact us for our help in making sure Franks went to prison for his effort to lure her child into his trap. There was no confusion for Franks, he knew he was breaking the rule's, and well the paper should have followed up with what they thought they knew, by investigating Franks as we did. We found that Franks purchased everything right at Wal-Mart and had handed cards out there and in other counties as well where he also attended wrestling matches of young men involved in sports. And that misunderstanding Franks was telling them about happened to a male child way younger than 18, the case did not come to light until the boy was close to that age when Franks was convicted of sexual violation, and lets not forget he used a modeling agent scam to begin with in his first conviction. It is why I started my News Letter with "What they don't want you to know about Franks!" So anyone who feels the need give Mr. Lacara the facts of what is needed where sexual offenders are concerned we feel Mr. Lacara is sympathetic towards them and knows not the dangers sexual offenders hold for children. By the way he was right Franks is doing a 4year stay with prison officials as you read this, our protest woke up Franklin County as the same week we protested Selva was recieving a Smack on the hand by Connors which really fueled the fire and got O'Rielly involved with our cause, we also protested over that case as well. And no-one in Coshocton parent wise ever showed up to support or mission during our fight for ordinance 165-05, they proved to this group all we needed to know, they were either to busy to care or just left it up to others as they usually do to get the job done. Something we are honored to have done......