Jay Dee Garrity - Repeat Sex Offender - Faces new allegations

A 49-year-old local registered sex offender faces a decades old allegation after a teen-age accuser told Tennessee police she was sexually assaulted as a young girl by the man during a three-year period in the 1990s.

Jay Dee Garrity, of 4112 Upham Road, was arrested at his home by Kettering police Sept. 1, on warrants issued by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said Kettering Officer Michael Burke.

The 19-year-old woman, now living in Oklahoma, claims Garrity sexually assaulted her as a child when she lived in Nashville between 1996 and 1999, said Kris Mumford, a Nashville police spokeswoman.

Garrity, who also goes by the name Joe Dee Hicks, is charged with three felony warrants of aggravated sexual battery, Mumford said.

Garrity, who listed his occupation as a pipe fitter, is not currently listed in any Montgomery County jail. On the day he was arrested, he was taken to the Kettering City Jail, with plans to turn him over to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office for extradition proceedings to Tennessee.

“Garrity refused extradition, so the fugitive section of the Nashville police are taking on a Governor’s warrant,” Mumford said. “That takes up to 90 days, but we will put plans into action to try to extradite him to Nashville.”

Mumford said the 19-year-old woman claimed Garrity forced her to perform sexual acts on him when she was a child.

While Mumford would not say how Garrity came in contact with the alleged victim, she said “this was not a stranger sexual assault.”

Garrity is currently listed as a tier III sex offender, Ohio’s highest classification level that is comparable to the old sexual predator classification and includes public notification post cards sent out to his neighbors, according to the sheriff’s department Web site. These offenders are required to register with law enforcement every 90 days for life.

“(There is) no evidence and no reason to suspect he has victimized any Kettering youth,” Burke said.

This is the second time Kettering police have had contact with Garrity in the past two years, Burke said. In 2007, police contacted Garrity regarding a warrant from Oklahoma accusing him of a sex offense against a minor.

Burke said police were not aware of the outcome of that warrant and do not know if the current warrants are related to the 2007 case.

Garrity served prison time in Ohio for sexually assaulting a “youth female,” according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Web site. No more information was available about this conviction.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte