§ 2917.21 Telecommunication harassment
Ohio Code § 2917.21 (A)(5) states that someone is in violation of the section if they:
“Knowingly make the telecommunication to the recipient of the telecommunication, to another person at the premises to which the telecommunication is made, or to those premises, and the recipient or another person at those premises previously has told the caller not to make a telecommunication to those premises or to any person at those premises.”
In short, the law says if someone tells you not to call them, you are subject to criminal prosecution under Ohio Code § 2917.21 (A)(5). I assume the legislators who wrote the law never imagined that it would be used to arrest a divorced father who was calling to talk to his three and five year old daughters. Here are some of the text messages that my ex-wife found to be harassing (misspellings in text messages are due to character limitations in the original text messages):
Sent: Sep 5, 2009 8:37 PM
Subject: Are you going to have the girls...
Are you going to have the girls call?
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 5, 2009 10:46 PM
Subject: Have the girls call me in the...
Have the girls call me in the morning unless you are going to punish them even more and not let them talk to their dad.
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 6, 2009 11:22 AM
Subject: Are you going to have the girls...
Are you going to have the girls call me? If not, just say so and I will stop asking. Please tell the girls that I love them.
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 6, 2009 6:09 PM
Subject: Are you going to let me talk to...
Are you going to let me talk to the girls?
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 6, 2009 6:56 PM
Subject: I will be informing the children's...
I will be informing the children's schools so they will know how to counsel the girls for any problems stemming from not being able to speak to their dad.
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 6, 2009 6:56 PM
Subject: If I don't hear from them tonite I...
If I don't hear from them tonite I will be filing a contempt charge on Tuesday. I will also be seeking emergency relief from the appellate court
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 6, 2009 7:00 PM
Subject: There is nothing in the orders...
There is nothing in the orders that allow you to prohibit me from speaking to the girls. You are abusing the children. I will be calling social services as well
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 7, 2009 11:57 AM
Subject: Are you going to even let me know...
Are you going to even let me know is the girls are ok? David Carroll just got visitation with his kids even though he killed Marcus Fiesel. Have the girls call
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 7, 2009 5:43 PM
Subject: Tell the girls that I love them.
Tell the girls that I love them. Send me a text to let me know the girls are ok or I will be calling ur family to see if the children are ok becuz i'm worried.
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 7, 2009 5:57 PM
Subject: If I don't hear from the girls by...
If I don't hear from the girls by 8 PM I will call the police and have them look for them. This is not a threat. i don't know if the girls are in danger.
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 8, 2009 3:34 PM
Subject: Are you going to let the girls...
Are you going to let the girls talk to me? If not, I plan on contacting the police and informing them of the situation. The girls are going to know someday.
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 9, 2009 7:50 PM
Subject: Have the girls contact me unless...
Have the girls contact me unless you still want to punish them because you are wrong. I'm sending information to elected officials now. You r hurting our kids.
_______________________________________________________
Sent: Sep 10, 2009 5:40 PM
Subject: If I don't hear from you or the...
If I don't hear from you or the girls by 8 PM to let me know that the girls are ok, I will be contacting the police again.
_______________________________________________________
Rather than send me a text message explaining that she was not going to let me speak to the girls or a text message letting me know that the children were ok, my ex-wife and her parents portrayed themselves as victims and had me arrested. There was no mention of threats or obscene language in the complaint. No late calls. No yelling. Their only complaint was that I would not give up my role as my daughters’ father.