Sarah Tofte of the Human Rights Watch says 25% of all sex offenders
re-offend within 15 years
re-offend within 15 years
Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Nadine Allen noticed a man lurking in the back of her courtroom as she was getting ready to send a woman to jail Tuesday for domestic violence.
When the judge stopped the proceedings to ask the man who he was, it started a conversation that led to the man’s arrest and the judge’s assertions that he may be preying on young women to run a sex ring.
“For 21 years (as a judge), I’ve been trying to catch a pimp and I finally did,” the judge said today.
She ordered Jason M. Lee 28, of Harrison, a registered sex offender, arrested in her courtroom and had him hauled to jail.
The story began with a 20-year-old standing before Allen on Tuesday to be sentenced for domestic violence.
The woman was accused of assaulting her mother and grandmother who, the judge said, were trying to keep her in the house.
“They knew that she was out there prostituting,” the judge said, adding the woman has prior prostitution convictions.
“This case involved her drug relapse,” the judge said.
When Allen Tuesday asked the woman who Lee was and what his involvement in her case was, the woman’s mother said Lee posted her daughter’s bond even though he was a stranger – and that he got his daughter’s name by searching the Hamilton County Clerk of Court’s web site.
Court documents show Lee posted the woman’s $100 bond Oct. 27.
“Jason Lee took her that day (her bond was posted) and forced her to have sex with his friends,” the judge said.
The friends, the judge added, then gave Lee money and drugs for the sex.
“My fear,” Allen said, “is that this guy has done this for other girls, posting bond for girls he finds on our web site.
“It’s possible that there is a sex ring going on.”
Hamilton County Sheriff’s officials, though, are confused.
Spokesman Steve Barnett said Lee was arrested in Allen’s courtroom yesterday but was that was for outstanding arrest warrants.
No new charges were brought against Lee as a result of the judge’s story.
Barnett said deputies couldn’t charge Lee with any new crimes involving Allen’s comments because the 20-year-old woman refused to cooperate with police unless the judge let her out of jail.
The judge sentenced the woman Tuesday to 180 days in jail, but refused to let her out.
When the woman heard that, she refused to give police information about Lee.
Lee was wanted for probation violations involving drug charges.
Lee is a registered sex offender, Allen said, because of convictions in 2000 for importuning and corruption of a minor.
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