COLUMBUS (WBNS) – The family of murdered Ohio State student Reagan Tokes has turned to the Ohio Supreme Court - asking for the ability to sue the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction after the state Court of Claims and the Tenth Appellate District Court tossed out the family’s lawsuit.
The Tokes have argued in court filings that the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation was negligent in that it failed to adequately monitor Tokes’ killer, Brian Golsby, a convicted sex offender who was released from prison three months before Tokes’ death.
Tokes was kidnapped after leaving her job at a Short North bar, raped and taken to Scioto Grove Metro Park where she was fatally shot twice in the head. Golsby was convicted last spring and sentenced to a life term in prison without the possibility of parole. At the time of Tokes’ murder, Golsby, was under the watch of the Adult Parole Authority and had been assigned a GPS ankle monitor.
A series of 10 Investigates reports exposed how Golsby was not closely monitored, nor was he sanctioned by his parole officers, despite having violated the terms of his post-release supervision three times by violating curfew, going AWOL from his halfway house, the Exit Program, and failing to charge his GPS ankle monitor.
The Tokes family sued ODRC claiming that “DRC’s negligent monitoring and supervision of Golsby led to Ms. Tokes’ death such that DRC is liable for Golsby’s actions.”
The state alleged in its filings that it was immune from being sued and had no special relationship to protect Tokes.
The Court of Claims and the Court of Appeals both agreed.
The Tokes are now asking that the State Supreme Court weigh in.
