Michael DeBose (December 16, 1953 – April 23, 2012) was an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in ...

. He was first elected to that position on February 13, 2002.

Biography

DeBose attended

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...

, where he earned a BA in Mass Media Communications. He was an ordained and licensed minister of the Zion Chapel Baptist church. He was married with three children. He was the primary sponsor of four bills, including one to create a mandatory pink

sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crime ...

license plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate ( Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificati ...

so people can better identify them, saying "The primary reason they can prey is because they're camouflaged from who they really are." On May 1, 2007, DeBose was taking a walk around his neighborhood after returning from Columbus when two armed robbers attempted to hold him up. He had, in the past, voted against concealed weapon legislation, but cited the incident as changing his stance.

Death

DeBose died of complications of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

on April 23, 2012, at the age of 58.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debose, Michael 1953 births 2012 deaths 21st-century American legislators 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American people Democratic Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives Cleveland State University alumni Deaths from Parkinson's disease in the United States Neurological disease deaths in Ohio Politicians from Cleveland Baptist ministers from the United States African-American state legislators in Ohio