Title: Chojnacki v. Cordray

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Chojnacki v. Cordray, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-3212.] 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in 
an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested 
to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 
65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or 
other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be 
made before the opinion is published. 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2010-OHIO-3212 
CHOJNACKI, APPELLANT, v. CORDRAY, ATTY. GEN., APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Chojnacki v. Cordray, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-3212.] 
Causes dismissed as moot. 
(Nos. 2008-0991 and 2008-0992 — Submitted November 4, 2009 — Decided 
July 13, 2010.) 
APPEAL from and CERTIFIED by the Court of Appeals for Warren County, 
No. CA2008-03-040. 
__________________ 
{¶ 1} These consolidated causes present a single issue for resolution:  Is 
a judgment denying a request for the appointment of counsel in a reclassification 
hearing held pursuant to 2007 Am.Sub.S.B. 10 (“S.B. 10” or the “Adam Walsh 
Act”) a final, appealable order? 
 
{¶ 2} Appellant pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful sexual activity 
with a minor in Cuyahoga County and was sentenced in 2006 to four years in 
prison on each count, to be served consecutively.  After a classification hearing 
pursuant to R.C. Chapter 2950, the trial court found that appellant was not likely 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
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to reoffend and classified him as a sexually oriented offender.  Appellant is 
currently incarcerated in the Warren Correctional Institution in Warren County, 
Ohio. 
{¶ 3} In December, 2007, appellant received a letter from the Ohio 
Attorney General notifying him that he had been reclassified under S.B. 10 as a 
Tier II offender.  On February 26, 2008, appellant filed a petition to contest the 
application of S.B. 10.  Because appellant was incarcerated and indigent, he filed 
with his petition a motion to appoint counsel.  On March 10, 2008, the trial court 
denied the motion for appointment of counsel, and appellant appealed. 
{¶ 4} On April 3, 2008, the Twelfth District Court of Appeals sua sponte 
dismissed the appeal because it was not taken from a final, appealable order. 
{¶ 5} This court released its opinion in State v. Bodyke, ___ Ohio St.3d 
___, 2010-Ohio-2424, ___ N.E.2d ___, on June 3, 2010.  In Bodyke, we severed 
R.C. 2950.031 and 2950.032, the reclassification provisions of the Adam Walsh 
Act, and held that after severance, those provisions could not be enforced.  We 
further held that R.C. 2950.031 and 2950.032 may not be applied to offenders 
previously adjudicated by judges under “Megan’s Law.” 
{¶ 6} The reclassification hearing which has resulted in this appeal and 
the related certified question arose under the now-severed provisions of R.C. 
2950.031 and 2950.032.  Accordingly, these causes no longer present a justiciable 
case or controversy, and as a result, the appeal is dismissed as moot and the 
certified conflict is dismissed because a conflict no longer exists. 
So ordered. 
 
PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’CONNOR, O’DONNELL, LANZINGER, and 
CUPP, JJ., concur. 
 
BROWN, C.J., not participating. 
__________________ 
January Term, 2010 
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Richard Cordray, Attorney General, Benjamin C. Mizer, Solicitor General, 
Alexandra T. Schimmer, Chief Deputy Solicitor General, David M. Lieberman, 
Deputy Solicitor, and Christopher P. Conomy, Assistant Solicitor, for appellee. 
 
Timothy Young, Ohio Public Defender, and Jason A. Macke and Sarah M. 
Schregardus, Assistant Public Defenders; and Kelly K. Curtis, for appellant. 
 
Robert L. Tobik, Cuyahoga County Public Defender, and Cullen Sweeney 
and John T. Martin, Assistant Public Defenders; Yeura R. Venters, Franklin 
County Public Defender, and Paul Skendelas, Assistant Public Defender; R. Paul 
LaPlante,  Lake County Public Defender, and Vanessa R. Clapp, Supervising 
Attorney; Glen H. Dewar, Montgomery County Public Defender; Tammi R. 
Johnson, Stark County Public Defender, and Jean A. Madden, Assistant Public 
Defender; ACLU of Ohio Foundation, Inc., and Carrie L. Davis; and Gamso, 
Helmick & Hoolahan and Jeffrey M. Gamso, urging reversal for amici curiae 
Cuyahoga County Public Defender, Franklin County Public Defender, Lake 
County Public Defender, Montgomery County Public Defender, Stark County 
Public Defender, and American Civil Liberties Union. 
______________________