NEW ORLEANS — One registered sex offender’s girlfriend called and said he was dead. Local law enforcement removed his name from the registry without checking if it was true. 

Another was convicted of a felony, resetting the clock on his removal from the registry. But because nobody updated the state database with the new conviction, his name is set to drop off the list before it legally should. 

A lifetime-registered sex offender hadn’t been to his seasonal check-ups with his local law enforcement agency in 11 years. But the agency never alerted anybody and continued marking him as active and compliant in the registry. 

These are some of the anecdotes used by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office to underscore multiple oversight failures in how agencies across Louisiana manage and keep track of registered sex offenders. 

Their findings were released Tuesday in a 59-page document sent to the governor, state attorney general and other public officials. 

As of February, there are more than 11,000 registered sex offenders in the state. They are separated into three categories: Tier 1 offenders must register for 15 years; Tier 2 offenders are on the list for 25 years; Tier 3 offenders are registered for life and have the strictest check-in requirements.

While no sex offenders had been left off the registry completely, auditors found that none of the agencies using the registry is responsible for making sure it is accurate and updated regularly. 

Local law enforcement agencies, called management agencies, did not have a cohesive standard for how information should be put into the database or what to do if a sex offender didn’t comply with the restrictions. 

A 2008 audit found the same issues, but no changes have been made in the past 12 years to how the system is administered.

The issues found by the auditing team ranged in scope, from missing employment verification to incorrect identifying information such as social security numbers. 

In a survey of 79 sex offenders on the registry, approximately 60% were classified in the wrong tier. For most, this meant they were classified as a higher tier than they should have been, and had their names on the registry for more time then legally required. 

Because only Tier 1 and 2 offenders are normally reviewed by the state’s Sexual Predator Apprehension Team — usually one year ahead of their assigned date to be struck from the registry — an offender incorrectly placed in Tier 3 could pay fines and be forced to register for life without legal justification. 

On the other side, 17 of the sex offenders reviewed were placed in lower tiers than they should have been, meaning they would be removed from the sex offender registry before they should be — if they should be removed at all. 

In some cases, even tracking sex offenders by their basic information raised challenges. At least 425 sex offenders had invalid or blank social security numbers in the registry. In at least three cases, the same number was used for multiple offenders. And auditors found two cases where incorrectly logged information made it look like offenders were younger than 10 years old. 

And employment data — which an offender is required to report within three days — was not up to date for the majority of sex offenders the state checked. 

Using workforce data, auditors found 421 sexual offenders who didn’t have a job listed. In a majority of the cases, they hadn’t told their managing agency about the job. But in roughly a quarter of the cases reviewed, the managing agency simply never put that information into the registry, where it would have been publicly displayed. 

The agency found at least 721 offenders who were at least two months late for their required check-ins with law enforcement, with the longest gap being 11 years, during which the lifetime offender told auditors he thought his name had been removed from the registry. 

He had never been marked as non-compliant with his check-ins and the management agency in charge of him never looked to get a warrant for failing to appear. 

Across the state, about 4.5% of registered sex offenders are listed as non-compliant, according to state data. 

In Orleans Parish, that number is much higher. The NOPD reported 55 non-compliant sex offenders out of 550, meaning about 10% were not completing required regular updates. Only three parishes have a higher percentage of non-compliant offenders. 

But the New Orleans Police Department receives the third-most state funding in the state from a fund designed to offset the costs of checking on sex offenders — approximately $43,000. 

The solution auditors found to most, if not all of these problems, was legislation designating one of the agencies involved in the registry’s upkeep as the official agency responsible for it. They said the Louisiana State Police would be the most likely candidate for the job. 

But LSP officials balked at taking on the responsibility of managing the sex offender registry, saying they didn’t have the manpower or the authority to do so.

It is likely that the state police will be able to continue avoiding the burden of registry management for the immediate future. There is seemingly no legislative interest in addressing the issues laid out in the audit, and the 2008 one before it. Despite state auditors finding many of the same oversight problems then, there has been no legislation put forward in the 12 years between the audits aimed at consolidating the responsibility for the sex offender registry. 

In the meantime, at least 62 sex offenders don’t even have a schedule set up in the registry for check-ins, meaning there is no way to track whether they have been keeping law enforcement officials up to date with their information. 

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COSTA MESA, Calif. — A district attorney and a county board of supervisors chairwoman are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to intervene to stop the release of a man from a state hospital.

CBS Los Angeles reported that Cary Jay Smith, 59, is set to be released this week from Patton State Hospital. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said Smith was sent there in 1999 after writing a letter describing thoughts of kidnapping and doing sexual acts to a 7-year-old boy who lived in his neighborhood. At the time, he was found to present a “demonstrated danger of inflicting substantial physical harm” to kids.

Smith was required to register as a sex offender in 1985 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor sexual offense involving a child, CBS Los Angeles reported.

The reason why Smith has been kept in a state hospital is because of a court order, which expired Saturday, according to the Orange County Register. The newspaper reported Smith has had court hearings every six months to argue for his freedom, but counsel and health authorities have sought the renewal of the hold each time.

During those hearings, authorities say Smith has testified to fantasizing about raping and killing young boys and claimed to have killed three boys and molested hundreds, CBS Los Angeles reported.

“This sexual predator has repeatedly testified under oath that he will re-offend if he is released and we should believe him,” Orange County District Attorney said in a statement to the news station.

With the hold already expired, Smith is expected to return to Orange County, where he used to live.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. — Crime Stoppers Western New York is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest of Adolphus Nelson.

Nelson is wanted for absconding parole; a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Crime Stoppers says Nelson is a level two registered sex offender and should be considered dangerous.

Nelson is a Black man who is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds.

Anyone with information about Nelson’s whereabouts is asked to contact Crime Stoppers Western New York at (716) 867-6161 or submit a tip by downloading the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App “Buffalo Tips.”

LEWISTON, N.Y. — Robert Bull, a former doctor from Lewiston, will have to register as a sex offender as part of a plea deal for having sexual conduct with a teenage patient.

Bull will also serve six years on probation as part of the sentence he received on Tuesday that did not include any jail time. It happened during an after-hours medical appointment at the Golisano Center for Community Health in Niagara Falls this past March.

The District Attorney’s Office says the victim agreed to the plea deal, which also required Bull give up his medical license.

The state supreme court overturned the conviction of a sex offender who failed to register his address when he moved from Houston to Bibb County.

The court ruled that the original indictment against Prentiss Jackson was faulty and incomplete.

According to a court summary of the case, Jackson pleaded guilty to statutory rape in 2004.

He registered his address in Houston County, as required by law, the court says.

Under the state’s sex offender registry, if he moves to a new county he has to notify sheriff’s in both counties of his new address.

In 2011, Houston County officers could not locate Jackson at his Warner Robins address and learned that he’d moved to Macon.

Jackson’s lawyers argued, and the state court agreed, that the indictment stated only that he had failed to register. It didn’t state that he failed to notify the Bibb and Houston sheriff’s when he moved.

The indictment is void because it failed to describe the crime Jackson was actually accused of.

The state appeals court ruled against Jackson, but the Georgia Supreme Court says it ruled unanimously in his favor.

In 2012, Jackson received a 30-year sentence for failing to register, with six years to serve in prison. According to state Department of Corrections records, he’s served four years of that term.

Here is the state Supreme Court summary of the case:

JACKSON V. THE STATE (S16G0888)

A man currently serving a 30-year sentence for failing to register as a sex offender – with the first six years of his sentence behind bars – has had his conviction and sentence reversed under a decision today by the Supreme Court of Georgia.

In a unanimous opinion, written by Justice Robert Benham, the high court finds that the indictment was insufficient and defective because it failed to inform him of the “essential elements” of the crime with which he was being charged.

To withstand a legal challenge, “an indictment must: (1) recite the language of the statute that sets out all the elements of the offense charged, or (2) allege the facts necessary to establish violation of a criminal statute,” the opinion says. “In this case, however, neither of these methods for creating a legally sufficient indictment was followed.”

According to the facts of the case, in June 2004, Prentiss Ashon Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of Statutory Rape. Under Georgia Code § 42-1-12, as a convicted sex offender, Jackson was required to register with the sexual offender registry, which he did, listing an address in Houston County where he lived in Warner Robins. Jackson knew that under state law, if he planned to move from that address, he had to register his new address within 72 hours prior to any change. Under subsection (f) (5) of § 42-1-12, if one moves to another county, the law requires him to register not only within the allotted time with the sheriff where he last registered but also with the sheriff in the county where he is moving.

In June 2011, Houston County officers were unable to contact Jackson at his Warner Robins address. They subsequently learned he had moved to Macon in Bibb County and was living with his girlfriend. Jackson had not registered the new address and was arrested in January 2012. At a preliminary hearing, he said he had moved to Macon because his home in Warner Robins had no electricity or water, according to briefs filed in the case.

In the indictment, a Houston County grand jury charged Jackson with “failure to register as a sex offender,” stating in the indictment that Jackson “did fail to register his change of address with the Houston County Sheriff’s Office within 72 hours of the change as required under Official Code of Georgia Annotated § 42-1-12.” During trial, Jackson’s defense attorney made an oral motion asking the court to direct a verdict in his favor, arguing the indictment was defective because it failed to allege that Jackson was a convicted sex offender and that he was required to register under the statute. The trial judge denied his motion. In June 2012, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of failing to register as a sex offender, and Jackson was sentenced to 30 years, to serve six in prison without the possibility of parole and the remaining 24 years on probation. Jackson appealed to the Court of Appeals, which concluded that the indictment was not “fatally defective” because it charged Jackson with violating a specific penal statute and incorporated the terms of the Code section “Because the evidence supported Jackson’s conviction, the trial court properly denied his motion for a directed verdict,” the appellate court ruled. Jackson then appealed to the state Supreme Court, which agreed to review the case to determine whether the Court of Appeals erred in finding that Jackson’s indictment was not defective.

In today’s opinion, the high court finds the Court of Appeals erred and has reversed its judgment.

The problem with the Court of Appeals’ reasoning “is that the indictment referenced the entire multi-part, 14-page Code section, which includes numerous requirements with which a convicted sexual offender must comply,” the opinion says. “The indictment merely asserted that appellant failed to register a change of address with the Houston County sheriff’s office within 72 hours of that change of address as required by § 42-1-12. But even subsection (f) (5), which sets out the steps that must be followed to update a sexual offender’s registration, contains multiple requirements.”

In its 2010 opinion in Henderson v. Hames, the Georgia Supreme Court restated the longstanding principle that, “An indictment is void to the extent that it fails to allege all the essential elements of the crime or crimes charged.” “That principle is founded upon the constitutional guaranty of due process.”

As authority for its assertion that Jackson’s indictment was not deficient, the State relied on the Court of Appeals’ 2008 opinion in Shabazz v. State and its 1990 opinion in State v. Howell, which stated that as long as an indictment charges that the accused’s acts violated a specific penal statute, it will withstand a challenge that it is defective “despite the omission of an essential element of the charged offense.”

However, today’s opinion says that withstanding such a challenge “requires more than simply alleging the accused violated a certain statute. Accordingly, Howell and Shabazz are overruled, along with later opinions relying on these two cases, to the extent they hold that an indictment alleging merely that the accused’s acts were in violation of a specified criminal Code section is not defective.”

“Further, such an indictment would not provide the accused with due process of law in that it would not notify the accused of what factual allegations he must defend in court,” the opinion says. “Likewise, it would not allege sufficient facts from which a trial jury could determine guilt if those facts are shown at trial.” Here, the indictment states that Jackson’s offense was, “failure to register as a sex offender.” But Jackson did not fail to register as required by § 42-1-12; he failed to update his registration with his change of address and follow the requirements to do so. “In other words, the indictment does not inform the accused of what alleged action or inaction would constitute a violation of even subsection (f) (5) of the Code section, which subsection was not even referenced in the indictment.”

In conclusion, the indictment “did not recite a sufficient portion of the statute to set out all the elements of the offense for which he was tried and convicted,” the opinion says. “Likewise, the indictment did not allege all the facts necessary to establish a violation of subsection (f) (5) of § 42-1-12.”

“Only if additional factual allegations had been asserted in the indictment would it be clear what acts or omissions the grand jury had found probable cause to believe the appellant had committed, and what acts or omissions the trial jury would be required to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that appellant had committed in order to find him guilty as charged.”

Attorney for Appellant (Jackson): Russell Walker

Attorneys for Appellee (State): George Hartwig, III, District Attorney, Marie Banks, Asst. D.A.