Medina, OH Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

C. 241, is narrowly written: subsection (a) applies only to a person acting "with purpose to solicit another to engage in sexual activity for hire" while in or near a public place. Within that purpose element, five specific acts are prohibited: beckoning to or attempting to stop another person; engaging or attempting to engage another in conversation; stopping or attempting to stop a vehicle's operator, or approaching a stationary vehicle; if the offender is a vehicle's operator or passenger, stopping, beckoning to, or enticing another to approach or enter that vehicle; and interfering with the free passage of another person.

Subsection (c) defines "public place" broadly for this section, covering streets, roads, highways, bikeways, walkways, sidewalks, bridges, alleys, plazas, parks, driveways, parking lots and transportation facilities, building entrances fronting those areas, and any other place open to the public. Subsection (b) separately criminalizes the same conduct when the offender knowingly has tested positive for HIV, which is prosecuted as a felony under state law rather than through Medina's municipal court. Medina's code does not contain a general loitering, vagrancy or unlawful-assembly provision; the only loitering offense on the books is this solicitation-specific one, so ordinary standing, waiting or gathering in public without the solicitation purpose is not regulated by this section.