KETTERING — Five times, a 47-year-old Dayton man has been convicted of sex acts in public.
And on Thursday, Joseph C. Jordan was arrested again for allegedly inappropriately touching himself inside a store at the Town & County Shopping Center, 300 Stroop Road. His arrest Thursday morning came just days after a six-month prison term ended for a similar incident in September 2017 at Kettering Medical Center near the maternity ward.
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“It’s terrible. We should not be exposed to that type of stuff,” said Darlene Masters of Jamestown.
A legal expert said he thinks someone like Jordan will offend again.
Dorothy Lane Market is one of the places he inappropriately touched himself in 2016, and at a Centerville Christmas caroling outing in 2014. They are all places people said they spotted Jordan either inappropriately touching or exposing himself — in public.
Some people expressed outrage, others bewilderment Jordan has only served short jail sentences. He did serve a prison stint for the hospital sex act conviction, records show. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s records show his release date was Sunday from the Correctional Reception Center in Orient.
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“You can only hold him so long,” University of Dayton law professor Tom Hagel said, because Jordan has mostly been convicted of misdemeanor crimes.
He’s facing a felony following his arrest Thursday.
“What that tells me is the prosecutor is tired of just letting him off on misdemeanors,” Hagel said. “For each subsequent offense, the potential for jail time goes up.”
Even with a felony, if convicted the longest sentence Jordan could get is 12 months in prison.
But from his time as a lawyer and judge, Hagel said the chance of someone else catching Jordan in the act again is high.
“There are certain types of offenders, that, due to psychological problems, whatever, that there’s a tendency for them to be more likely to be habitual offenders, and one of them are people like this.”
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