In April 2003, 44-year-old Brock Henly was stopped by police for having an open container of alcohol in public. In June 2003, after police learned that Henly had been convicted of sexual assault in Illinois in 1990, he was arrested on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender in Ohio.
On July 21, 2003, Henly pled guilty to the charge in Hamilton County Superior Court. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and placed on probation for four years.
Over the next three years, Henly was arrested on other occasions and his probation was revoked, sending him back to prison.
In 2006, Henly was arrested again and prosecutors obtained a new indictment for failing to register. Henly’s defense lawyer discovered that Henly was paroled in Illinois in 1993 and was not required to register as a sex offender because he had arrived in Ohio prior to 1997 when that state enacted a sex offender registration law.
In June 2006, Superior Court Judge Richard Niehaus dismissed the indictment.
In 2007, Mary Jill Donovan filed a post-conviction motion on behalf of Henly seeking to withdraw his guilty plea in 2003 to the charge of failing to register. On September 18, 2007, the motion was granted and the charge was dismissed.
In May 2010, the state of Ohio awarded Henly $85,000 in compensation.
– Maurice Possley
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