Three plead guilty to abduction in Highland County Common Pleas Court

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HILLSBORO — A Wilmington man who earlier pled guilty to child pornography charges avoided prison and was given community control sanctions, which the judge said was “way out of my comfort zone.”

Seth Parshall, 30, was sentenced Wednesday in the Highland County Court of Common Pleas to five years of community control sanctions after he pled guilty recently to three counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance, a fifth-degree felony.

Judge Rocky Coss delayed Parshall’s sentencing hearing after the plea, and ordered him to surrender his laptop for investigation to see if Parshall has viewed similar content since 2014, when the initial offense occurred. Highland County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Molly Bolek said on Wednesday that no such content was found on the laptop.

Parshall said at a previous hearing that he bought the laptop shortly after the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation confiscated his computer in 2014.

Coss said Parshall scored 1 out of 40 on the Ohio Risk Assessment test, meaning it is unlikely he will become involved in criminal activity in the future.

“That’s extremely low,” Coss said.

Coss said he has always taken a “pretty hard line” on sex offenders, but he said there was no evidence to indicate Parshall would return to that kind of behavior again.

Even so, the judge said he was reluctant to sentence Parshall to community control sanctions.

“I’m way out of my comfort zone,” Coss said. “I’m taking a chance on you.”

Coss said Parshall’s computer is subject to search at any time, and forbid him from using social media and visiting websites that could contain explicit content.

“You will have no expectation of privacy,” he said.

Parshall is a Tier-I registered sex offender.

Reach David Wright at 937-402-2570, or on Twitter @DavidWrighter.

Judge: ‘I’m taking a chance’ in Parshall sentence

By David Wright

The Times-Gazette

AIM Media Midwest News Network

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