A convicted sexual predator living in Panama City, but never registered as a Florida resident, will be the first defendent to be prosecuted federally under the Adam Walsh Act in the Northern District of Florida. John Guadalupe Gonzales, 55, was arrested Wednesday by U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force members and officers with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after a brief surveillance in a local park. He was taken into custody without incident after the Task Force stopped his car on West Collegiate Drive in the city.

The US Marshall's Office is officially charging Darrell Sanchez with failing to register as a sex offender under the new Adam Walsh Act. Investigators say Sanchez is a convicted sex offender from Nevada who was staying in Port Barre. Port Barre Police identified the suspect during a routine traffic stop. Officials with the US Marshal's Office say Sanchez is now being held in federal custody.

An out-of-state sex offender, now in the St. Martin Parish jail, is one of the first to be arrested and prosecuted under a new federal law. The Adam Walsh Law, which President Bush signed last year, prevents sex offenders from moving state-to-state without being detected.

During a traffic stop in Port Barre, police discovered Darrell Sanchez, a convicted sex offender moved from Nevada to Louisiana and didn't register here. Sanchez was convicted in California then moved to and registered in Nevada.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Eddie Langlinais, in the Lafayette office, says Sanchez was living in Port Barre about a couple of months without notifying authorities. Guidelines are more stringent under federal law. Sex offenders have three days to register. Since Sanchez moved from Nevada to Louisiana, and stayed under the radar, Langlinais says he'll be the second person to be prosecuted under the Adam Walsh Law.

Sanchez' attorney, Lester Gauthier, says he has filed for a motion to dismiss the case against Sanchez. Gauthier says his client was not obligated to register as a sex offender in California.

Federal prosecutors on Friday announced the first indictment in Central and West Texas of a man accused of violating a new law that targets sex offenders who fail to register with authorities. A federal grand jury in Waco indicted Ricky Dean Lucas of Lorena under the Adam Walsh Act, which makes not registering a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Lucas was released from a Texas prison on Oct. 13, 2004, after a five-year term for crimes related to indecency with a child. He moved to Kansas and failed to check in with authorities in either state, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said in a news release.

A new law is making it possible for federal prosecutors to charge sex offenders for failing to register. Armando Beltran-Gonzalez, 43, is the state's first case under the "Adam Walsh Child Protection Act." .... Beltran-Gonzalez was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury for failing to register as a sex offender and one count of unlawfully re-entering the U.S. after being convicted of an aggravated felony and being deported. .... Beltran-Gonzalez will be arraigned next week in federal court in Wichita on charges of failing to register as a sex offender.

A Sallisaw man was arraigned in federal court on charges of failure to register as a sex offender. Sheldon J. Sperling, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, announced Friday that the charges against Shawn Lloyd Hinckley, 27, arose from an investigation by the U.S. Marshal Service. "Hinckley, who is allegedly a convicted sex offender from the State of Washington, was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this week for allegedly failing to register as a sex offender after relocating to Oklahoma," Sperling said. "Hinckley is the first person charged in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma with this crime. ....

The first person charged with the federal offense of failing to register as a sex offender in the Southern District of West Virginia was arrested Thursday in Huntington, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Robert L. Stinson Jr. was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person younger than 13 in Detroit in 1993, according to a news release. Stinson did not register as a sex offender with the State Police when he moved to West Virginia, according to the release.

"Police, U.S. Marshals! Martin, open the door." .... Officers weren't able to locate him, but when they do, he'll be charged as this man, Dennis Tudor of Colorado, was under the Adam Walsh Act. A federal crime where he faces up to 10 years in prison simply for moving to our community from another state and failing to register as a sex offender. ...

A convicted sex offender is in custody in Horry County. He's the first in South Carolina charged under the federal Adam Walsh Act. On Friday, US Marshals arrested Jesse Merle Keffer of Conway for failing to register as a sex offender. President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act last July to track and arrest convicted sex offenders who disappear after their release from prison.

People we talked with say they're happy Keffer is in jail and hope he doesn't come back to their neighborhood. But as far as his being the first arrest in South Carolina for this offense, neighbors say it didn't happen soon enough. The people living on Lee Hucks Lane in Conway say they've always thought of it as a safe area. "This is so peaceful and you know, we've never had any problems," said Elvire Placid.

That's how they felt before they found out a convicted sex offender was living in their neighborhood, but never registered under the law. Jesse Keffer was arrested by US Marshals on Friday as part of the Adam Walsh Act. The law makes it a federal felony for convicted sex offenders to not register their address with local authorities. ...

Keffer was in federal court in Florence Monday. According to the Pennsylvania Sex Offender Registry, he was convicted in 1999 of indecent assault. And according to their website registry, he has a Pennsylvania address. If convicted of failing to register as a sex offender, Keffer could face up to 10 years in prison.

Two convicted sex offenders who escaped from local halfway houses last year were indicted last week under a stringent new law passed in July. The men — Lee Benedict Segundo, 44, and Davis F. Eleando, 39 — were indicted on charges of failure to register as convicted sex offenders and escaping from custody in two separate incidents, according to a news release from the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Arizona.

The men were staying in the halfway houses as a condition of supervised release when they absconded in September and October, the release said. They did not update their registration within three days, as required under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which expanded the definition of a sex offense and increases the penalty for offenders who fail to comply with registration requirements.

A former York County (Pennsylvania) man and sexual offender is charged under a new federal law, accused of moving out of state and not properly registering his address with authorities. Elmer Alvin Duncan, 40, formerly of Wrightsville, was indicted Dec. 13 on federal charges that he violated the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service branch in Harrisburg. [snip] Authorities found Duncan Dec. 19 in Ocala, Fla. Duncan struggled when officers tried to put him in handcuffs but was taken into custody, the Marshals Service said.

Fredrich Deandrea Gholston, also known as Frederick D. Gholston, 32, was indicted for failing to register as a sex offender in Titus County from Sept. 1, 2004, through Oct. 25, 2006. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Gholston, who was convicted for gross sexual imposition in Butler County, Ohio, in 1998, was arrested by U.S. deputy marshals and Mount Pleasant police on Oct. 23, according to a prepared statement from the U.S. Marshals Service in Tyler. The defendant was sentenced for the 1998 conviction to four years in prison and was ordered to fulfill the requirements of a habitual sex offender for 20 years. But when he was released from prison, Gholston failed to register as a sex offender in Ohio.

When the sex offender moved to Mount Pleasant, where he lived for about two years, he failed to notify police of his new address. The failure to register is now a federal crime under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which was passed by Congress in July. Gholston is currently in custody in Ohio on unrelated charges. The federal grand jury in Tyler returned the indictments on Wednesday, as well as four indictments that remain sealed.

An Arkansas man has been arrested for reportedly failing to register as a sex offender, the first such arrest after the federal Adam Walsh Act was signed into law last summer. Steven Trent Tucker, 45, was ordered on Friday to return to Washington, D.C., to answer the charge. Tucker was arrested Wednesday in Wynne for knowingly failing to register or update a registration as required by federal law.

Jim Hays, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal in Little Rock, said Tucker was convicted in February 1999, in Washington, D. C., of interstate travel to engage in a sexual act with a minor. Tucker was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison followed by two years' probation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Cavaneau on Friday ordered Tucker detained and returned to Washington, D.C., on the warrant issued by a federal magistrate judge there.

"Under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which was signed into law on July 27 by President George W. Bush, it is a federal felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a convicted sex offender to travel across state lines without properly registering, giving notice or reporting.

But Dunavant said it is a state charge when those offenders are in violation of Tennessee’s registry law without crossing the state line. “My job is to prosecute state charges in my district, including Fayette County,” he said. “And I’ll be indicting those people, probably at the end of this month, in the Fayette County grand jury.”"

However, the article is unclear as to any that would be prosecuted in Federal court for crossing state lines.

1-24-07: Local case tests tough law on sex offenders by by Pedro Ruz Gutierrez The veteran federal judge wanted to let the child molester go. A seasoned prosecutor challenged him and won. But the case of Orange County resident Wilfredo Madera is far from settled as federal authorities grapple with a tough new law that penalizes sex offenders for failing to register when they move out of state. [snip] Madera's guilty plea followed an animated exchange between Senior U.S. District Court Judge G. Kendall Sharp and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Hawkins -- one that could be repeated in federal courtrooms across the country. Though he upheld the law as constitutional and found it could be used retroactively, Sharp, during a Jan. 11 hearing, wanted to dismiss the case and said he was inclined to spare Madera prison time. [snip] "I was just thinking out loud. It was a mistake. I backed off from that," Sharp said of his initial move for dismissal. "I don't oppose punishment. I want to look at each case individually." Sharp's initial leniency has outraged critics, especially John Walsh, father of the law's namesake, Adam. His son was 6 when he was raped and killed after being abducted from a South Florida mall in 1981. "Come on, let us start enforcing the law," said Walsh, host of TV's America's Most Wanted and founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "Should there be punishment? Yes. Damn right. You should be punished." NOTE: John Walsh's son was obviously murdered in that all they have found of him is his head, but no one can say he was raped, that is speculation on the part of the reporter. Walsh's comment is interesting, he expects RSOs to follow the law, BUT, the USAG does not have to follow the same law. The USAG has not told these defendant's about AWA as Congress required of him (42 USC 16917)). 1-22-07: Orlando Sex Offender Faces Sentencing Under Federal Law by WESH.com An Orlando sex offender is the first in the nation to face sentencing under the new Adam Walsh Child Protection Act. Wilfredo Madera, 41, failed to register his address when relocating from New York, WESH 2 News reported. Failing to register was law in Florida before the federal Adam Walsh legislation, but state law enforcement officials said they had been frustrated with the slap on the wrist many sex offenders received as sentences when they failed to register. The Adam Walsh law makes it a federal crime to move across state lines without telling the proper authorities. 1-12-07: "Orlando Sex Offender Wilfredo Madera Pleads Guilty to Failure To Register" by Marshal's Service ORLANDO SEX OFFENDER PLEADS GUILTY TO FAILURE TO REGISTER: Guilty Plea is First Under Adam Walsh Act Orlando, Florida - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and the United States Marshals Service announced that Wilfredo Madera, a 41-year-old resident of Orlando, Florida, has pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender under the Adam Walsh Act, which was enacted on July 27, 2006. ...

... Wilfredo Madera, a New York sex offender, was sentenced to six years of probation last year and moved to Florida in June. Because Madera failed to register with state authorities here, he now faces up to 10 years in prison under a new federal law that penalizes sex offenders who fail to register when they move across state lines.

Madera -- the first person in the nation charged under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act -- was part of a countrywide roundup by the U.S. Marshals Service that netted nearly 11,000 fugitives in one week. In Central Florida, deputy marshals and their state and local counterparts arrested 38 people between Oct. 22 and Saturday.

Operation Falcon III focused on sex offenders and gang members, although fugitives wanted in homicides, drug offenses and organized crime also were nabbed. ... [snip]

Federal Public Defender R. Fletcher Peacock, whose office represents Madera, said he could not comment on the case but said the new law is unfair because there are similar state laws. "The failure to register is already a crime in most states," said Peacock, who supervises more than 25 assistant public defenders from Fort Myers to Jacksonville.

The federal law -- signed into law in July, 25 years after the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh -- gives the marshals service the lead role in coordinating the national effort to track and arrest sex offenders. [snip] According to an affidavit by Deputy U.S. Marshal Laura Sofia, Madera and his family moved to West Palm Beach in June and two months later relocated to Orlando. Once in Florida, Madera had up to 10 days to register as a sex offender.