Sex offender gets 5-year prison term

Van Wert independent

A Middle Point man who pleaded guilty to sex charges was given five years in prison by Van Wert County Common Pleas Judge Charles D. Steele during a hearing held Wednesday.

Judge Steele sentenced Thomas M. Roberts Jr., 36, in connection with a charge of gross sexual imposition, a third-degree felony offense. Roberts was also classified a Tier 2 sex offender, which means he will have to register his address with the sheriff’s department of the county in which he resides and works twice annually for the next 25 years.

Roberts was originally charged with rape for alleged sex activity with a child under age 13. He also originally faced a felony escape count stemming from his escape from a Van Wert County Sheriff’s Department deputy while being transported to jail on the rape charge. Roberts feigned illness and asked the deputy to roll down a rear window in the cruiser to give him air. However, as the cruiser slowed to cross railroad tracks not far from Middle Point, Thomas opened a rear door from the outside and jumped from the vehicle.

He eluded a search conducted after the escape and was later recaptured without incident at a Mercer County residence by sheriff’s deputies from that county.

More court information from Wednesday will be published in Friday’s edition of the independent.