Authorities round up 10 sex offenders for failing to register addresses
Southampton Town and Suffolk County police, with the help of U.S. Marshals report they have arrested 10 sex offenders over three months for failing to register their addresses with the state.
The Southampton Town Police department’s juvenile aid officers spearheaded the effort to enforce the state Sex offender Registry Act, which requires convicted sex offenders to update the state Division of Criminal Justice Services on where they live.
As part of the operation, local authorities responded to given sex offender addresses within the town to verify the men or women lived there and are in compliance with the law. Those who were found not to be living at the registered addresses were tracked down and arrested.
Those arrested include:
Richard Ramos, failure to notify a new change of address
John Shelton, failure to notify a new change of address
Jason Bullock, failure to notify a new change of address
Carl Graves, failure to notify a new change of address
James Stoutmire, failure to notify a new change of address
William Keene, failure to notify a new change of address
Robert Trocchio, failure to notify a new change of address
John Martinolich, failure to notify a new change of address
Benjamin Griffin- failure to notify a new change of address
* Lucas Rivera, failure to personally verify address with local law enforcement every 90 days
All of the above charges are felonies, Southampton Police said.
Nine of the 10 sex offenders are now registered as residing at the county jail, except for Richard Ramos, whose names do not appear on the public database, which lists only Level 2 and 3 sex offenders. Level 3 offenders are deemed the greatest risk to re-offend.
* Described as “uniquely problematic” by Department of Social Services officials in a February 2009 News-Review article, Mr. Rivera, who most often lives in the county’s homeless sex offender shelter outside the county jail in Riverside, is a repeat offender of the state’s sex offender registry laws and had even been arrested in 2008 for urinating on the Riverhead Town Police headquarters on Howell Avenue.
