CINCINNATI -- An appeals court already released a convicted sex offender from prison 23 years early, and a parole board might set him free again next month, when his sentence runs out on a separate parole violation.

Michael Wardia had served only two years of his 25-year sentence for raping an 8-year-old girl when the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled last year that a dry-erase board placed in a Kenton County courtroom as a shield for his young victim had violated his Sixth Amendment rights.

“He has a constitutional right to face his accuser?” said Angela Smith, the victim’s mother. “OK, well, so does she, so what's the technicality? It wasn't a technicality, it's that the system failed.”

The appeals court released Wardia after it found that the board’s presence in the courtroom had not been properly justified or documented.

Kenton County commonwealth’s attorney Rob Sanders, who took office only this month, said he is unsure how the error occurred.

”I don't know who was to blame because I wasn't there, but what I can tell (you) is that we're doing things differently now, we're conscientious of the difficulty, the nuances, the peculiarity of prosecuting cases in which there are child victims of sexual offenses," Sanders said.

The victim, now 11 years old, has offered to testify again if Wardia is retried, but prosecutors have instead offered Wardia a plea deal for his time served.

“The reason I want to testify again is because I don't want this to happen to anyone else. My sister is 7 (and) I don't want that to happen to her,” said the victim, who is not identified because she is a child. “I want him in jail where he belongs."

Wardia is currently serving time in Ohio on a parole violation, and is scheduled for release in February.

Smith has appealed to the parole board to keep Wardia behind bars, and she said they told her they would consider his overturned conviction when hearing his case.