Killing spurs parolee-tracking bill
The circumstances that allowed the kidnapping, rape and murder of an Ohio State student in February were not the result of any single failure of the criminal-justice system.
So a bipartisan pair of state legislators from Franklin County — one a former assistant county prosecutor and the other a former assistant attorney general — plan to introduce legislation aimed at addressing problems with how violent criminals are released from prison and tracked.
Rep. Kristin Boggs, D-Columbus, said Reagan Tokes was kidnapped about three blocks from the legislator’s house, and Boggs was particularly disturbed when she learned that the man charged in the case, convicted sex offender Brian Golsby, might be linked, through his parole-required GPS tracker, to six armed robberies in the German Village area.
Rather than Golsby being caught by electronic tracking, however, police were led to him by a cigarette butt found in Tokes’ abandoned car.
“How in the hell is this guy able to commit six armed robberies while he’s on a GPS monitor, and could still be at large if he didn’t smoke a cigarette and leave a butt in this woman’s car?” Boggs said. “How terrifying. What a failure that the technology wasn’t able to prevent his criminal activity.”
Boggs said she went looking for answers, talking to the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
“I really realized there wasn’t a silver-bullet answer for why this was able to happen,” she said. “It became clear there were so many issues that led to him being able to commit these crimes. That is what the bill attempts to address.”
Boggs joined with Rep. Jim Hughes, R-Upper Arlington, who already was in contact with Tokes’ family, about jointly sponsoring legislation that will be known as
— Rep. Kristin Boggs, D-Columbus
the Reagan Tokes Act.
The entire Franklin County delegation is supporting the multi-faceted bill, Boggs said.
Under the initial proposal, to be introduced next week, violent felons would be sentenced to an indeterminate sentence, with a minimum and maximum.
The bill also would require that when violent and potentially dangerous felons are released from prison, and are rejected for programs easing re-entry to society, the state create and recommend a re-entry program so the felon isn’t homeless.
Golsby was rejected by private re-entry companies.
“Releasing a rapist homeless isn’t good for the neighborhood,” Boggs said.
The bill would require the state to establish maximum workloads for parole officers and a minimum time that such officers must dedicate to certain parolees based on their risk.
Golsby was on electronic monitoring and Boggs said the issue she has heard about most from constituents is the failure of GPS to stop the murder, or the previous armed robberies.
“Without any restrictions on his monitor, it doesn’t mean anything to see a dot walking around a map,” Boggs said. “Without any restrictions, there’s no context for the person doing the monitoring to know if the person is behaving inappropriately or in places they shouldn’t be.”
The bill would require every felon with a GPS monitor to have an inclusionary restriction. Within two years, the state must establish a statewide database of parolee GPS information and require third-party vendors to provide crime-scene correlation information that can interface with the database.
The bill also would give law enforcement real-time access to GPS information without a subpoena.
Tokes was kidnapped about 10 p.m. Feb. 8 as she walked from her Short North workplace to her car. Her body was found the next day near the entrance to Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City.
Golsby has pleaded not guilty to an 18-count indictment, which includes charges that he committed the six armed robberies in the days leading up to the slaying of the 21-year-old. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Golsby has asked for the trial to be moved from Franklin County because of extensive news coverage of the case.