In re: Application of John D. Tynes, Case No. 2015-0543

Board of Commissioners on Character and Fitness

The board that reviews the character and fitness of those seeking to be admitted to practice law in Ohio doesn't recommend the approval of John D. Tynes' application to take the bar exam and wouldn't permit him to reapply in the future.

In late 1990s, Tynes worked for the U.S. Army and lived in Virginia. While visiting sexually-oriented online chat rooms in 1998, Tynes contacted people he believed to be girls under the age of 15. He shared photos, sometimes explicit, with them, and they also provided photos to him. During an attempt to meet one of the girls from a chat room in Las Vegas, Tynes was arrested by the FBI. Earlier that year, he had also tried to set up meetings with girls in two other cities to have sex with them. Neither agreed to meet Tynes.

Tynes was charged in military court. He was convicted of conduct unbecoming of an officer, four counts of attempting to persuade a minor to engage in sex, two counts of traveling interstate with the intent to have sex with a minor, one count of knowingly possessing child pornography, and one count of knowingly receiving child pornography. He was sentenced to 30 months and served 19 months.

Afterward, Tynes, his wife, and four children moved to Arkansas. He registered, as required, as a sex offender in the states in which he lived following his conviction.

Tynes then applied to various law schools and was accepted by Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University. Tynes fully disclosed his conviction and imprisonment in his applications. The requirement that he register as a sex offender in Ohio, where he lives, expired in November 2011.