COLUMBUS, Ohio — The day after the fifth anniversary of Reagan Tokes’ kidnapping and subsequent murder, Ohio House lawmakers passed a bill named after the former Ohio State student that aims to shore up gaps in the state’s criminal justice system – namely how the state tracks ex-prisoners once they’re released.
Tokes was kidnapped, raped and killed on February 8, 2017, at the hands of a convicted sex offender, Brian Golsby, who had been released from prison three months earlier. Because of his status as a sex offender, no halfway house would accept him. He was released from prison homeless and assigned a GPS ankle monitor.
But nobody tracked him closely.
He committed a string of violent robberies in the German Village area in the weeks leading up to Reagan’s death – all while wearing that GPS ankle monitor.
Nothing in his post-release control supervision plan restricted his movements or closely monitored his whereabouts.
Reagan’s death highlighted the vulnerabilities within the state’s criminal justice system, according to Representatives Kristin Boggs and Rick Carfagna, the sponsors of House Bill 166, also known as the Reagan Tokes Act.
10 Investigates’ reporting further exposed that problem and additional gaps in the system by proving that Reagan’s death was not a one-off. There have been other women who died at the hands of men who were under the watch of the state’s Adult Parole Authority. Our reporting also exposed how parole officers argued that their caseloads are overwhelming – limiting their ability to adequately supervise the people under their watch.
Gov. Mike DeWine later ordered a working group to study the problems with the state’s Adult Parole Authority in wake of Tokes’ murder and another unrelated case out of Dayton.
While a portion of the Reagan Tokes Act that dealt with criminal sentencing of indeterminate sentencing became law in December of 2018, the remaining portions of the bill have languished.
Previous iterations of the legislation gained some traction within previous general assemblies, but never became law.
Wednesday’s vote marked the latest surge in traction for the bill that would, among other things:
- Beef up GPS monitoring of ex-prisoners, requiring that they have geographic boundaries of “exclusion and inclusion zones” that would stipulate where they could go or couldn’t go
- Increase law enforcement’s access to the GPS supervision data
- Reduce parole officers’ caseloads
- Require the state’s corrections department to create a re-entry program to reduce the number of inmates being released homeless
Prior to the House vote, Rep. Kristin Boggs, D- Columbus, gave what she called her “longest floor speech” where she walked fellow lawmakers of the crime spree Golsby engaged in during the two weeks prior to Reagan’s kidnapping and murder.
“There are real gaps in our post-release control,” Boggs said. “That needs to be fixed.”
Boggs also thanked the Tokes’ family for their advocacy for change following their daughter’s death.
She also mentioned another constituent, Rachael Anderson, who was killed by Anthony Pardon, almost a year after Reagan’s death.
10 Investigates’ reporting exposed how Anderson’s killer, Anthony Pardon, was supposed to be on a GPS ankle monitor after he returned to Ohio to serve out his Georgia probation as part of a prison exchange program through an interstate compact. Despite a judge’s order asking that Pardon be on a GPS ankle monitor and pay for its cost, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and the Adult Parole Authority said it could not comply with Georgia order.
Both Golsby and Pardon were later convicted and sentenced to life in prison for their respective crimes.
HB 166 still needs the approval of the Ohio Senate.
This story will be updated.