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By Denise G. Callahan

Staff Writer

A Warren County grand jury indicted Michael Hamblin on four counts of child enticement, the Warren County Prosecutor's Office announced Monday, July 7.

Hamblin, 38, of Hamilton, a tier III repeat sex offender, was originally charged with three counts of child enticement after police said he tried to lure several young girls into the woods at Heritage Oak Park in Mason on Sunday, June 22.

The mother of some of the girls, who asked not to be named, said there were actually four children in the group who were playing on a playground near a picnic shelter where a baby shower was in progress.

Hamblin allegedly offered to show the children a flying a squirrel. The mother said she called police after the incident and Hamblin ran into the woods.

The indictment, handed down Thursday, July 3, lists four felony counts which could get Hamblin up to four years in prison if he is found guilty.

Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said Hamblin will he arraigned in Warren County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday, July 9, and her office will ask that the $750,000 bond, set by Mason Municipal Court Judge D. Andrew Batsche, remain in place.

Oxford police arrested Hamblin at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, about three hours after his photograph appeared in the news media in connection with the case in Mason. A tip from a resident led to Hamblin's arrest in Butler County, police said.

Police in Liberty Twp. and Monroe also will question Hamblin, whose last known address was in the 5000 block of Augspurger Road, about recent reports of similar crimes in their communities, officials said.

Last June, Hamblin was sentenced to 90 days in the Butler County Jail stemming from a December 2006 arrest for public indecency. He was charged with the same crime in Warren County for a separate incident that occurred two days earlier. He was already serving a sentence at the London Correctional Institute for an unrelated crime.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.