COLUMBUS – The legislation known as the Reagan Tokes Act, in honor of a slain Ohio State student, was approved by the House of Representatives Wednesday, one of a number of bills that cleared the General Assembly’s lower chamber after waiting for the election of a new Speaker.
The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Kristin Boggs (D-Columbus) and Jim Hughes (R-Upper Arlington) implements new standards to improve the monitoring of violent offenders, alters sentencing guidelines and attempts to ease a heavy workload burdening the state’s parole officers.
The bill is named for Reagan Tokes, an OSU student who was kidnapped, raped and killed after leaving work at a Short North restaurant in February 2017. Her body was found in a Grove City metro park.
“Reagan Tokes had her whole life ahead of her. A bright, young, intelligent, hardworking student, she was taken from this earth much too early. As a state, we can and must do better to ensure that this does not happen again,” Hughes said.
The bill now heads to the Senate.
The man found guilty of Tokes’ murder was a convicted sex offender who had been released from prison homeless three months prior and, although he monitored by a GPS, it was later discovered that in the months leading up to Tokes’ death, Brian Golsby committed a series of armed robberies.
He was sentenced to life in prison for the robbery, rape, and murder of Tokes and for an additional 66 years for the other crimes committed while he was on GPS monitoring.
“The Reagan Tokes Act offers critical, commonsense reforms to the way we monitor violent offenders, making our communities safer for children and families,” said Boggs. “Hopefully by passing this legislation, no family will have to endure another heartbreaking tragedy like the one the Tokes family experienced this past year.”
The Reagan Tokes Act makes several reforms:
-Returns Ohio to indeterminate sentencing for some felonies to encourage prisoners to take advantage of rehabilitation programs and punish those who fail to reform by ensuring they stay incarcerated past their minimum set term.
-Prohibits the states from releasing inmates who are homeless
-Requires parole officer guidelines, including maximum work-load and case-load standards
-Creates a statewide database of GPS-monitored offenders to allow for more effective GPS monitoring of recently released offenders
-Requires the State Criminal Sentencing Commission to appoint an Offender Supervision Study Committee to study issues related to the release and supervision of offenders
House members on Wednesday also voted 87-4 to pass bill to restore cursive handwriting to state learning standards, sending that measure to the Senate.
The House also sent to the Senate a bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Andrew Brenner (R-Powell), that would grant surviving spouses of a peace officer, firefighter, EMT, or paramedic killed in the line of duty a $50,000 extension of the state’s homestead exemption, which reduce their property tax bills by shielding some of the market value of their homes from taxation.