LUCAS COUNTY, OH (WTOL) - A local man is battling with the Lucas County Sheriff's Department after they wrongly labeled him as a sex offender on their website.
Even though the Sheriff's Department said that they are working to right this wrong, Nicholas Douglas fears the damage has already been done.
"You have ruined my life, Lucas County Sheriff's Department. My life is ruined right now," Douglas said.
Last Monday, Douglas walked into the Lucas County Sheriff's Department on a menacing charge from January.
On Tuesday morning, the Lucas County Offender search website had him wrongly listed with a bigger charge: soliciting a person under the age of 13 for sex.
"He was booked into the system. The intake officer who does the docket entered in some information and type coded a charge inaccurately," said Captain Richard Grove of the Lucas County Sheriff's Department.
"I was asked by several community organizations to not return until this gets straightened out because who wants children around someone that's being accused of being a sex offender?" Douglas said.
Not only is the error impacting his job as a driver for Uber and as a licensed youth pastor in his community, but now it is affecting his safety.
"I could be walking outside right now -- I could leave this place and pull up to a stop light and Joe Blow could be there saying, 'Dang, there goes that child molester' and blow my head off," said Douglas.
Captain Grove said that a lieutenant found the error and corrected it immediately.
But is the correction enough?
"I don't know what to say except, God help me and I hope this is cleared and this is put out here so that my reputation and my family's reputation is protected," Douglas said.
"On behalf of Sheriff John Tharp and the entire sheriff's department we apologize to Mr. Douglas for any error that we made and anything it may have cost him," Captain Grove said.
Worried about his livelihood and his safety, Douglas believes this apology is too little, too late.
When we spoke to Douglas on Monday, he said that he is getting an attorney involved because even though the error has been corrected on the Lucas County website—it's still on other public records and websites.
Captain Grove said that if Douglas sends them a list of the websites the mistake is on, they'll do anything in their power, including sending documentation, to get it removed for him.
