Failure to register as sex offender, a common charge in Basin

According to the Utah Department of Corrections online sex offender registry, there are a total of 279 noncompliant sex offenders in the state. In Uintah County there were over 22 charges brought through the attorney's office for failure to register as a sex offender, which is a third-degree felony.

In Uintah County there have already been three charges of failure to register with Vernal's8th District Court from Jan. 1 to Feb. 10, 2017.

Uintah County Deputy Attorney John Gothard said he has seen many charged with failure to register, and said there are quite a few that are filed multiple times a year with his office for being noncompliant.

Assistant Chief of Vernal City Police Department, Keith Campbell, said it is always good to remember that "stranger danger" is not exactly the number one way to keep safe. The majority of the time, sex crimes are committed by close friends and family members.

"If you wanted to deal with adult rapes, there's a huge percentage of adult rapes that are not that guy that hid in the bushes and reached out and grabbed somebody and did a stranger rape," Campbell said. "Way more often than not it's an acquaintance that has some sort of infatuation or whatever the circumstance may be."

Detective Shaun Smith with Vernal Police Department said it is important for the public to keep up on registry by looking at watchdog sites or the Department of Corrections registry.

"In dealing with sex offenders, it's a little bit unique because you never know what they are on the registry for," Smith said. "They aren't necessarily the boogie man that people would typically think of when they think of a sex offender."

Smith said the public should educate themselves on sex offenders in their area. Searching by zip code for registered sex offenders in the area can be done on the registry sites. Smith said it is good to not only educate yourself on where they are living, but also what crime put them on the registry. The registry also tells whether the sex offender is noncompliant.

"If you see that they are noncompliant and you know where they are at, or you have a tip concerning where they may go, or vehicles they may be driving that are not listed on that website, those kinds of things, you can either do it on a tip format on the sex offender registry website, or you can call us and we'll look into it," Smith said.

Smith said if anyone is noncompliant, law enforcement more than likely already knows, but there is a chance they have not been notified yet.

"We recognize that sex offenders as a whole perceptually are the boogie man to the community regardless of what their crime is, so we want to jump on that as quickly as we can to make sure everybody is safe," Smith said.

Because Vernal is located in a rural area that borders both Wyoming and Colorado, it is typical for somebody who is a registered sex offender to jump back and forth over state lines. Smith gave an example that if a registered sex offender went to Dinosaur, Colorado for more than 10 days and did not register in Colorado, the offense would change from a state offense to a federal offense.

"We can't treat a sex offender any different than we do anybody else." Smith said, "What I mean by that, in other states they can't live within a certain radius of a school, a park, or a church. We don't have that luxury. We can't dictate, unless they are on probation or parole they can dictate where they can live, but we can't dictate that. Although there is a concern that a person lives next to a school a church or a park, that is not illegal, but their conduct potentially could be."

Smith said that laws in Utah are very particular regarding sex offenders and a sex offender is allowed to go to a school as long as they have children and are conducting activities that are considered parental responsibilities, like handing out birthday invitations. Smith said if a sex offender has no children and no parental responsibility to be at a school, then the conduct may be problematic.

"There are statutes that say they can't live within so many yards of their victim and that's enforceable, but just because they have a child within their home, that is not illegal, unless it is not their child," Smith said. "If they are living in a house with a girlfriend or boyfriend, and that girlfriend or boyfriend has children, they are required statutorily to carry around with them a permission slip saying it is OK by this person to be around my child for whatever duration."

Smith said local law enforcement pays very close attention to sex offenders because society asks them to, but at the same time law enforcement wants to hopefully eliminate, or at best negate the potential of re-offense.

Campbell said sex offenders are more likely to reoffend than other crimes. "The odds of curing someone that has committed one of those offenses is pretty rare," Campbell said. "The recidivism rate is huge."

According to Campbell there is less probability of someone to reoffend after serving time for a homicide and completing probation, for instance. That's why there is no registry for homicide.

Campbell said that one of the frustrations he has regarding sex crimes is the statute of time served and the judgments put in place.

"There are some sentences that the statute says have to be divvied out--I believe 90 consecutive days for your first offense," Campbell said. "From a judicial standpoint, some of those mandated sentences aren't adhered to.

Maybe somebody, by statute, has to do 90 consecutive days because of their conviction. But sometimes they do five; seven. There are names of people that have been charged repeatedly with failure to register as a sex offender."

When searching Vernal, Utah, on the Department of Corrections website, 82 offenders are listed, 34 listed in Roosevelt, 18 listed in Duchesne, two listed in Naples, two in Jensen, 13 in Myton and seven in Fruitland.