Sex Offender Pleads Guilty To Violating Sex Offender Registration And Notification Act

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Luis Ortiz, 42, formerly of Providence, pleaded guilty in federal court in Providence today to failing to register as a sex offender as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), announced United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha and United States Marshal Jamie A. Hainsworth.

Ortiz, convicted in Rhode Island state court in 2000 of second degree sexual assault, admitted to the court that he failed to register in any jurisdiction that he resided in after notifying Providence Police in November 2012 that he was moving from Providence to Pennsylvania.

SORNA provides a comprehensive set of federal standards for sex offender registration and notification in the United States through the nationwide network of sex offender registration and notification programs. Additionally, SORNA requires registered sex offenders to register and keep their registration current in each jurisdiction in which they reside, work, or go to school, and to make periodic in-person appearances to verify and update their registration information.

According to information presented to the court, in November 2012, after notifying Providence Police that he was moving from Providence to Pennsylvania, Ortiz moved in with his mother in Brockton, Mass., and also resided at a homeless medical shelter in Boston.

In January 2013 he moved back to Rhode Island, but eventually traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, where he was located by the U.S. Marshals Service living in a hotel with a girlfriend and her two young children.

Ortiz is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., on August 27, 2014.

Failure to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act is punishable by a statutory penalty up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose.

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