Ron Welch
Muskingum County Prosecutor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Man Convicted in 2016 Rape, Convicted Again for Failure to Register
On Friday, September 19, 2025, Muskingum County Common Pleas Court Judge Gerald Anderson convened a jury trial to hear the case of Todd Kopchak, 40, of Chandlersville.
Kopchak stood accused of two counts, failure to register as a sexual offender, and failure to provide notice of change of address as a sexual offender. The jury deliberated less than an hour before returning guilty verdicts on both charges.
Each charge is a felony of the first degree, carrying a separate, mandatory sentence between 3 and 11 years, which will be determined at a later date. Kopchak also faces an additional 4.5 years of incarceration for violating his post-release control.
Details of the case:
Jurors heard the case, which was presented over one day by Assistant Prosecutor John Litle, and learned that Kopchak was avoiding his registration requirements in several ways.
Released from prison on April 10, 2025, Kopchak properly registered his address on April 11, 2025. In June, Kopchak got in a dispute with his family members, went to jail, and was evicted from his home. Kopchak properly registered himself as being homeless upon his release from jail.
When registering as homeless, sex offenders are required by law to provide a written, detailed description of where they are staying, and if they move, are required to appear in person to provide another written description of where they are staying.
Kopchak did not show up to report where he was living, he also did not call in to report where he was living, and additionally he moved out of Muskingum County and to the Wayne National Forest, also without reporting.
Kopchak took the stand in his own defense, attempting to explain that he believed that if he never stayed in any one place longer than 3 days, he would not have to inform anyone of where he was living and didn’t need to register.
In addition to those violations, Kopchak also failed to show up for his registration in July. All convicted rapists are required to register in-person every 90 days for the term of their natural life.
“Mr. Kopchak believed that he had discovered a cheat-code where he was able to cleverly avoid registering as a sex offender,” according to Litle. “But keeping track of convicted rapists is an important public safety issue, and there are not technicalities that sex offenders can find that strip them of their obligation to let law enforcement know where they’re living.”
In 2016, after being convicted at trial, Kopchak was sentenced to 8 out of a possible 22 years.
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