Sex Offender Denied Ohio Bar Admission But May Reapply
The Ohio Supreme Court has disapproved an application for bar admission but will permit reapplication in July 2018 or thereafter.
In 1998, when he was approximately 50 years old and serving in the military, Tynes began frequenting sexually oriented chat rooms on the Internet. In those chat rooms, he introduced himself to at least four females whom he believed to be under the age of 15. He later communicated with them privately through email and instant messaging. He sent them sexually explicit photographs of himself. He also requested and received similar pictures from the girls.
On three separate occasions, Tynes sought to arrange in-person meetings with the young girls he had befriended online. He sent numerous e-mail messages to a 13-year-old girl in Louisville, Kentucky, telling her that he wanted meet her and that he “desperately wanted to make love” to her. He also called her on the telephone, but the girl discouraged Tynes from going to Louisville by telling him that her parents had grounded her.
A second incident occurred while Tynes was returning home to Virginia from temporary military duty in Texas. He travelled 300 miles out of his way to meet another female whom he believed to be a minor. After renting a motel room, he e-mailed the girl and tried to convince her to sneak out of her home so that they could engage in sex. After considerable discussion, the girl declined to meet him.
Three months later, Tynes was scheduled to fly from Virginia to Las Vegas on official military business. He arranged a layover in Chicago, where he rented a hotel room with the intent to engage in sexual activities with a female whom he believed to be a minor and to make a video recording of the encounter. He telephoned the girl and arranged to meet her outside his hotel, but when he appeared for that meeting, he was arrested by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He fully cooperated with the FBI and informed agents that he had pornographic images of children under the age of 18 in his home. The FBI found those images on his computer hard drive and on many computer discs, following a search of his home.
He was tried and convicted at a court martial and was sentenced to 19 months.
After his release, he attended Northern Kentucky Salmon P. Chase College of Law.
When he applied for bar admission
…the board found that Tynes’s commission of multiple felony offenses established a disregard for the law and a complete disregard for the health, safety, and welfare of the vulnerable young girls from whom he solicited sexual favors. Noting that attorneys hold a position of trust and come into contact with vulnerable people on a daily basis, the board determined that allowing a convicted sex offender to hold this position of trust would clearly undermine the public’s perception of and confidence in the legal profession. Therefore, the board recommended that we deny Tynes’s application and not permit him to reapply as a candidate for the Ohio bar exam.
The court agreed but will permit reapplication in light of his post-conviction rehabilitation efforts.
Based on the evidence of Tynes’s good conduct since his release from military confinement in May of 2001, his ongoing mental-health treatment, and his continuing participation in OLAP, we believe that he may soon be able to carry his burden of proving that he possesses the requisite character, fitness, and moral qualifications to practice law in Ohio. Therefore, we sustain his second objection to the board’s report and will permit him to reapply for the Ohio bar exam.
Justice O’Donnell dissented and would not permit the applicant to reapply. (Mike Frisch)