NORTH TONAWANDA: Sex offender Lorich to be released ‘this week’

Local News

February 8, 2010

By Neale Gulley<br><a href="mailto:gulleyn@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Neale</a> The Tonawanda News Mon Feb 08, 2010, 11:50 PM EST

Sex offender and former North Tonawanda teacher Jason Lorich will be released near the end of this week, New York state Division of Parole Spokeswoman Heather Groll said Monday.

Groll said she could not say exactly where Lorich will be sent to live. The address will be in Niagara County and will eventually appear on the state’s Web site at www.criminaljustice.state.ny.us.

“I believe it will be up within 10 days of his release but it may be up before that. They’re pretty quick,” she said.

Lorich, who was a former North Tonawanda School District teacher convicted in 2001 on six counts of first degree sexual abuse, was scheduled to be freed under supervision Jan. 14. A decision ultimately was not reached by that date as to where he can legally live, since state and local laws usually require sex-offenders to reside a certain distance away from schools, daycare centers and the like.

He has served eight-and-a-half years of a 10-year sentence for molesting seven of his students while working as a teacher at Meadow Elementary school. Many of the victims’ families then sued the city school district in a series of civil lawsuits, winning sizable monetary awards.

“He is going to live in Niagara County,” Groll said. “That has been figured out.”

She said the department, however, is not yet at liberty to say where he will live.

State law specifies the cutoff mark for suitable residency is 1,000 feet from places children gather. North Tonawanda specifies a quarter-mile buffer zone.

Lorich was classified as a level three sex offender last year by the judge who handled his criminal case in 2001. Level three offenders are considered the most serious type.

Lorich’s conditions include a requirement to register as a sex offender upon release, at which time his picture and details about his conviction will also be posted on the state’s department of criminal justice Web site. There are many other parole board conditions. His post -release supervision is open to extension but is now scheduled until Jan. 14 2013.

Another North Tonawanda woman, allegedly a student of Lorich’s around the time of the abuse, is now suing for the first time, claiming to have also been a victim of his.

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.

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