The trial of a Henry County man accused of trying to abduct a 12-year-old girl from a North Toledo neighborhood ended in a mistrial yesterday after a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Theodore Harmon, Jr., 49, of rural Napoleon, is charged in Lucas County Common Pleas Court with attempted kidnapping for an April 12 incident on North Summit Street near Buckeye Street.

A registered sex offender, Harmon was arrested in 2004 near Cincinnati during a Hamilton County Sheriff s Office sting targeting Internet predators. He was convicted in Common Pleas Court there last year on two counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.

In the Lucas County case, jurors deliberated nearly seven hours over two days but were split, 10-2, in favor of finding Harmon not guilty on the felony charge.

Prosecutors said the case will be reviewed to determine whether to retry it.

David Klucas, a defense attorney for the defendant, said he and co-counsel Amber Van Gunten, were disappointed that the jury didn t move to acquit, but a hung jury is certainly better than a conviction. We are prepared to proceed again with a trial if this is what the state chooses to do.

The girl, who is now 13, testified she was waiting for a TARTA bus when a man approached her from behind and dragged her by the waist to a nearby car.

She said he offered money for oral sex but loosened his grip in reaction to her kicking him in the groin.

The victim said she fled and hid in bushes near a home, then hopped on the next bus, taking it to a gas station, where she called 911.

The girl testified that she became suspicious of the suspect before the alleged attack because he drove around the block three times in a dirty white four-door car, causing her to take a mental note of the license plate.

Toledo police matched the license to a vehicle owned by Harmon s mother, and the victim accurately identified Harmon from multiple photo arrays.

The jury wasn t told at trial that Harmon, a licensed insurance agent, was convicted in May, 2005 on the pandering charges, sentenced to jail for five months, and placed on community control for five years.

Steve Barnett, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff s Office, said Harmon was in the Cincinnati area on business on Feb. 12, 2004, when he traveled to the intersection of I-71 and Pfeiffer Road near Blue Ash, Ohio, after an Internet chat with a person who he believed was a 14-year-old girl. Harmon wanted to engage in oral sex and intercourse with the girl while her parents were away from home.

Instead, an undercover detective in the department s computer crime unit met Harmon, who was arrested.

Robert Denhard, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Insurance, said an investigation is under way to determine whether to revoke Harmon s licenses to provide life, accident, and health insurance as well as annuities.

Contact Mark Reiter at: markreiter@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.

First Published November 16, 2006, 1:23 p.m.