Sex offenders tracked down after fleeing, one nabbed in Washington state
A Level 3 sex offender was captured Sunday after he fled from a homeless trailer in Riverside to Washington state, then fought with police and fled on foot before being tased several times and arrested by Washington police officers, authorities said.
A second Riverside sex offender with multiple convictions for failing to register was also arrested for failing to notify authorities that he left the Riverside area in an unrelated incident.
The manhunt for the first suspect began when police and parole officers were unable to locate Daniel Saggese, 44, who was registered as living in the Department of Social Services trailers used to house homeless sex offenders on Center Drive in Riverside, according to a police statement.
Mr. Saggese was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, a class D felony, in 2006, state online records show. He is listed as a Level 3 sex offender – the highest risk of recidivism designated – and was required to check in personally with local police every three months, as well as update his address should he move within 10 days, officials said.
State parole officers charged Mr. Saggese with Absconding Parole, while the Southampton Police Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney indicted him for failing to register, officials said.
The U.S. Marshall’s New York Regional Fugitive Task Force and Sex Offenders Investigation Branch tracked Mr. Saggese across the country to Port Angeles, Wash. and alerted city police.
On Sunday at 4 p.m., City of Port Angeles officers found Mr. Saggese in a coffee shop, authorities said. They tried to take him into custody, but the fugitive fought police, injuring one of the officers, and fled the scene on foot. Police officers chased down Mr. Saggese and “tasered him several times” before arresting him.
Mr. Saggese faces federal charges under the Adam Walsh Protection Act for crossing state lines as a convicted sex offender and failing to notify authorities, and was charged with resisting arrest.
The resisting arrest charges against Mr. Saggese were dropped on Monday because Mr. Saggese was picked up by federal authorities on an extraditable warrant, according to the City of Port Angeles Attorney’s Office.
The second sex offender, Anthony Purificato, 45, was arrested last Tuesday after he left the sex offender trailers in Riverside six months ago without notifying authorities, according to Southampton town police.
Mr. Purificato was convicted of third-degree rape in 1996, according to online records. He is a Level 2 sex offender and is required to notify authorities within 10 days of moving, police said.
Southampton police detectives, the U.S.Marshalls Regional Fugitive Task Force and Sex Offenders Investigation Branch and the Suffolk County Special Victim’s Unit investigated and found Mr. Purificato at Mr. D’s Storage Facility in Holbrook, where he had been hiding for several months, police said.
He was charged with failing to register, was held overnight and remanded to Suffolk County jail without bail. Mr. Purificato had been convicted three times for failing to register, once in 2009, 2010, and in 2011.
