Sex offender charged with attacking girl, victims plead to have suspect evicted from neighborhood

ELMWOOD PLACE, Ohio - Police in Elmwood Place say a registered sex offender is to blame for assaulting two girls in an attack that forced a neighbor to have to step in to defend them.

Police arrested 34-year-old Damon Francis Tuesday night on Hasler Lane for three misdemeanor assault charges. Two 12-year-old girls told authorities Francis started chasing them, choked one of them and threw the other to the ground.

Francis then allegedly spit on a neighbor who went to confront him after the girls ran to her door for help.

In affidavits obtained by 9 News, both that neighbor and the two girls pleaded for Francis to be evicted from his nearby home, calling him a danger.  Francis is due in court Wednesday morning. A neighbor claims Francis is also stalking at least one child in the area, claiming Francis has been looking to homes' windows.

In 2007, Francis was sentenced to 9 months in prison and was registered as a sex offender for gross sexual imposition after forcing himself on a 19-year-old woman.