MiddletownJournal.com

MASON — There's enough evidence to send charges against a convicted sex offender, who's now accused of trying to entice three children, to the Warren County grand jury, Judge D. Andrew Batsche decided Tuesday evening, July 1.

Hamblin is a repeat offender whose crimes against children led to tougher state laws against sexual predators.

During a hearing in Mason Municipal Court, Batsche found there was probable cause to charge Michael Hamblin, 38, with three counts of sexual enticement. Hamblin allegedly tried to coax three children into the woods surrounding Heritage Oak Park on June 22 to "look for flying squirrels" according to testimony from Mason Detective Don Cope.

Under questioning from Mason Assistant Prosecutor Juliette Gaffney Dame, Cope said that three children, ages 6 and 7, identified Hamblin in separate photo line-ups conducted at the children's homes.

The children only resisted Hamblin's urging because one of their parents called the children away, Cope said.

Tim McKenna, Hamblin's attorney, repeatedly tried to paint the parents as neglectful and the children as unsupervised.

"The only people liable are the parents for not supervising their own children," McKenna said.

McKenna also forced Cope to admit that none of the parents saw Hamblin approach the children and that were only repeating what their children had told them.

Cope said that Hamblin told police he had been to Heritage Oak Park on June 22 but that he did not remember speaking to the children.

Oxford police arrested Hamblin at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, about three hours after his photograph appeared in the news media in connection with the case in Mason. A tip from a resident led to Hamblin's arrest in Butler County, police said.

Police in Liberty Twp. and Monroe also will question Hamblin, whose last known address was in the 5000 block of Augspurger Road, about recent reports of similar crimes in their communities, officials said.

Last June, Hamblin was sentenced to 90 days in the Butler County Jail stemming from a December 2006 arrest for public indecency. He was charged with the same crime in Warren County for a separate incident that occurred two days earlier. He was already serving a sentence at the London Correctional Institute for an unrelated crime.

On Tuesday, McKenna argued for his client to be released on a home electronic monitoring device, but Batsche upheld the $750,000 bail set last week and Hamblin remained in the Warren County Jail.