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WARREN -- A convicted serial rapist from Trumbull County had his parole hearing continued from February until May.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has authored a second letter to the parole board in an effort to make sure the man will stay in his prison cell.
Clyde T. Bush, who has served 33 1/2 years of eight life sentences, is expected to meet members of the Adult Parole Authority board outside his cell at the Marion Correctional Institution.
In his latest letter to the parole board dated April 7, Watkins documents his efforts since 1990 in stating that Bush "can be fairly categorized a serial child rapist and is the worst of the worst of serial rapists of little children in pure numbers ever seen in Trumbull County."
Bush was convicted in 1989 on attempted child rape and five counts of gross sexual imposition for molesting 10 children -- ages 2 to 6 -- during a two-year period at his wife's Howland daycare center.
In this recent letter, Watkins asks the board to review his Jan. 19, 2023, letter and other material he previously had provided about Bush's criminal history.
Watkins sent other letters objecting to Bush's parole in 1990, on May 14, 2014, and March 11, 2019.
Also, Trumbull County Sheriff Paul Monroe, who had investigated the case as a Howland police detective, sent letters in 2014 and 2019 opposing any parole for Bush.
In his letter from 2019, Monroe stated he was the lead investigator.
"These children were robbed of their innocence and subjected not only to physical trauma but also such mental anguish as we will never know," Monroe wrote.
In his years in law enforcement, Monroe wrote he has never seen a crime more egregious than the ones perpetrated by Bush or "a criminal more deserving of spending the rest of his life in prison."
Monroe stated if Bush is released, "it will be inevitable that he will attack and victimize another child and again cause irreparable and permanent damage to another innocent young life."
HISTORY LESSONS
Watkins, in his latest letter to the parole board, gives some historical perspective to Bush's actions.
"Some crimes live on in infamy and won't (or shouldn't) be forgotten," Watkins writes. "President Franklin D. Roosevelt aptly said the date of Dec. 7, 1941 'will live in infamy' because of the deadly deed of killing thousands of Americans at Pearl Harbor."
Watkins noted that "infamy" may also be used to describe evil or wicked acts committed by individuals such as Bush.
He also noted the recent rejection of parole given by the state of California to assassin Sirhan Sirhan, 78, who has been in prison for the 1968 murder of Democrat presidential candidate and then U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. According to official records, Watkins quotes the California parole board's reasons for denying Sirhan freedom, and said they should also apply to the 73-year-old Bush.
"The reasons cited … were that Sirhan has not developed 'the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community.' " Watkins wrote. "This reasoning should apply to inmate Bush."
Watkins noted that Kennedy's widow, 94-year-old Ethel Kennedy, has received 16 notifications of Sirhan's parole hearings and "it seems to me that Ohio has a lot of leeway and a long way to go with Clyde Bush to catch up with California's record of saying 'no' to parole."
Watkins also said the law provides the parole board with guidelines to deal with the unique factors involved in Bush's case that outweigh any burden to consider for parole, namely the child victims and the eight separate life sentences.
"How many life sentences does one person need to get before a parole board will say no to parole to a sexual predator who committed so many evil or wicked acts?" Watkins asks the board. "Clyde Bush has never escaped the infamy his crimes had earned him and he never will."
Noting that the board rejected parole for Bush in 2014 and again in 2019, Watkins states: "Please for the peace of mind and safety of the victims, their families and the citizens of Trumbull County and a fair enforcement of the law, forever deny as provided by law Bush any opportunity to touch a child again."
Watkins noted that many of Bush's victims have, through the years, also written the board asking to keep Bush in prison.
"Please read their letters," Watkins urges the board, "These folks deserve some peace of mind, in my opinion, and I know some of them will continue their quest to have a full-board hearing if needed to protect, in their minds, other children and exact proper punishment (on Bush)."
Thirty years after the acts, Watkins said one of Bush's child victims "still retains very vivid memories of these events, forever etched in (her) mind."
Meanwhile, Laura E. Austen, deputy director, Policy and Outreach for the Office of the Ohio Public Defender, said she does not comment on pending parole cases for the state's prison inmates.