WARREN — Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins on Thursday issued a warning to the public about repeat child sex offenders up for potential parole later this year.
In a newsletter, the prosecutor’s office urged the public to stay vigilant of three registered sex offenders: Willis Reitz, 65, William Fisher, 73, and David Lockney, 67, who are up for parole hearings in October and November.
David Lockney pleaded guilty in 1987 before Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge W. Wyatt McKay to four counts of rape and one count of attempted rape. Lockney is serving the sentences concurrently, to which prosecutors agreed in order to avoid having the girl, then 7, testify.
The victim, who was permanently injured from the attacks, also has sent letters to the board in the past opposing his release. Today, she has since married and started a family of her own. The woman, now in her 40s, continues to remain in contact with the prosecutor’s office regarding Lockney, taking an active role in opposing his release.
In a letter sent to the board in 2015 she wrote, “So I again beg of you to please not allow this man to be set free not only to protect me, my children and my family, but any other potential victims that may lay prey to him if he were to be released.”
In 1986, the prosecutor’s office revived one of only nine federal grants for the creation of the Child Assault Prosecution Units, one of the first programs designed for prosecutors to work closely with local Children Services Agencies, doctors, hospitals and police agencies in investigations of child abuse.
The child victim in the Lockney case became one of the first child assault cases for the unit.
Her birth mother, Lillian Lockney, pleaded guilty in 1987 to a fourth-degree felony of child endangering with specification and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. That prison term was suspended, and she was placed on two years probation with psychological counseling.
On Aug. 30, the victim penned another letter expressing the level of fear she has over Lockney, telling the board she still has “nightmares in the back of my mind” about the abuse she endured.
Watkins described current Marion Correctional Institution inmate Willis Reitz as being “one of the worst of the worst pedophiles.”
Reitz has been convicted of crimes in three states: Ohio, North Carolina and Mississippi.
By keeping him behind bars, Watkins argued in the letter that children are safer and that no new victims will have to suffer nightmares from crimes committed against them by Reitz.
His arrest record started in North Carolina where he was convicted of various criminal offenses in 1977. In November 1977, Reitz pleaded guilty to having assaulted a female and to a misdemeanor breaking and entering. He was given four years of probation and was provided with mental health treatment.
Before being sentenced to 15 years to life for rape in Mississippi in 1987, Reitz also had raped a 6-year-old girl relative a year before, but only served seven years, according to Watkins. He received early release after serving seven years of the 15-year sentence.
While on parole, two weeks later, he came to Warren, where he raped the same victim, then age 14, on multiple occasions. He was sentenced in Trumbull County to 15 years to life in prison by former Trumbull County Judge W. Wyatt McKay for four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition.
William W. Fisher is incarcerated in North Central Correctional Institution in Marion. Watkins dubbed the man a “multi-generational” sexual predator who was imprisoned and released, only to reoffend.
In 1978, Fisher forced a 4-year-old family member to perform a sex act, and he was caught by his wife. Charged with rape, Fisher pleaded guilty to gross sexual imposition and served three months in prison.
In 1987, Fisher was charged with three counts of rape with the same female child and another count of rape with another child-relative when the family lived on Homewood Avenue SE. After indictment, Fisher left the area and assumed another identity.
In 1993, Fisher returned to the area using the name James Watters. He began having sex with a 6-year-old, an 11-year-old and 12-year-old, according to records.
Fisher admitted to having sex with another teen relative in 1977 when he was 28.
Fisher was arrested Feb. 14, 1995, in Hilton Head, S.C., but made a brief appearance in Howland on Jan. 28 of that year when he presented a false driver’s license with the Watters alias, and fled.
Authorities learned the man’s real name was Fisher when they compared the photo on the phony license to a photo on file with Warren police.
During his time on the run, Fisher befriended a local family on Oak Street SW and eventually was charged with having sex with an underage girl.
Prosecutors at the time said the victim’s mother watched while her husband and Fisher had sex with the 9-year-old girl.
The girl’s father also was convicted and later died in prison.
Watkins challenged the notion that the violent offenders are “too old” to remain behind bars.
Click Here For The Original Source.
