CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — The U.S. Marshal’s Service and West Virginia State Police issued eight arrest warrants following sex offender compliance checks of 919 people in seven West Virginia counties last month.
“There are those out there that try to bend the rules and get around the system–skirt around the system–so they can still do whatever it is they want to do illegally,” WVSP Lt. James Stout said following a joint press conference in Clarksburg Wednesday morning.
Law enforcement conducted operation “April Showers” from April 9-16 in Harrison, Marion, and Monongalia counties. Police attempted to verify 475 sex offenders–finding 392 in compliance, 15 offenders not in compliance, and 68 offenders they weren’t able to initially verify.
“The fact that there are some that aren’t verified doesn’t really bother me,” Lt. Stout said. “But because we’ve tried to get them and we can’t, we have to verify them now.”
That will be conducted as part of daily operations by state troopers, but won’t be part of a specific, federally funded operation like April Showers or it’s sister operation “April Storms.” The latter, which was conducted in Berkeley, Hampshire, Jefferson, and Mineral counties, was an attempt to verify 444 sex offenders. 244 were found in compliance, 24 were not in compliance, and 176 were unable to be verified.
Moving forward, Stout said State Police will need to prioritize those who couldn’t be verified during these operations to make sure they are in compliance with the sex offender registry. He admits with limited resources and manpower that can be a daunting task–especially in the Eastern Panhandle.
“With all the files in the drawers, grabbing one at random isn’t really the best way to try to verify our offenders,” Stout said. “Operations like this are much more effective, but there is a financial price tag attached to it. So, it takes some additional funding and cooperation from other agencies to help us do that on a regular basis.”
Of the 919 offenders police attempted to verify, 39 were not in compliance with their registration. However, only eight arrest warrants were issued. Stout said that each county differs in how it treats a compliance violation–and that not every violation amounts to a criminal offense. Some violations are less a result of something sinister and more the reality for a person living paycheck-to-paycheck while trying to get back on their feet upon the conclusion of a prison sentence.
“Most of the time a prosecutor in the individual counties where I’ve worked at doesn’t want to punish an offender for monetary loss,” Stout said.
“When somebody’s out of compliance, there’s paperwork that outlines specifically what their responsibilities are. And they sign that every time they come into our office to make a change.”
Stout said that’s one reason why State Police usually keeps an open dialogue with a local prosecutor’s office when dealing with sex offender compliance checks.
“We kind of know what they want, but any time there is a grey area there we’ll run it past them and give them the facts and circumstances around that case,” he said. “If they choose to pick it up, then we arrest them. One way or the other, we bring the offender back into compliance first.”
These operations don’t come without their own cost. The U.S. Marshals Sex Offender Investigations Branch provided $23,000 in police overtime funding for the two operations. Stout cited budgetary concerns at the state level as a potential future road block to conducting these types of widespread operations in other parts of the state–future operations that he thinks the state really needs in some areas.
“Whatever people that do not want to comply will go some place and squat for a little while, try to avoid detection,” he said. “And when something comes up, they’ll be in the wind again.”
U.S. Marshal Gary Gaskins, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Alex Neville, and Senior Inspector John Hare spoke briefly at Wednesday’s press conference, and urged the public to report any potential sex offender compliance violations to State Police.
No officers were injured during either operation, which included nearly 20 percent of West Virginia’s more than 5,000 registered sex offenders.
As of Wednesday morning, one warrant remained outstanding.