News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
January 29, 2009
Carnival worker admits failing to register in
Rhode Island as a sex offender from another state
Leonard F. Roupe pleaded guilty today to failing to register as a sex offender after taking up employment in Rhode Island. Roupe, who was convicted in Georgia of child molestation, traveled to Rhode Island last April with a carnival company. A 2006 federal law requires a sex offender who moves to another state or takes employment in another state to register in that state as a sex offender.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the guilty plea, which Roupe entered before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi in U.S. District Court, Providence.
Roupe was convicted of child molestation in Georgia in 1998 and was required to register there as a sex offender, which he initially did.
Deputy U.S. Marshals developed information last June that Roupe had traveled to Rhode Island with a carnival concessions and games company and was living in a motel on Hartford Avenue in Johnston.
At the plea hearing today, Assistant U.S. Attorney Milind M. Shah said the government could prove that Roupe was aware that he was required to register.
Roupe, 51, whose current residence is in Watertown, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of failure to register under SORNA after traveling interstate for employment. The maximum penalty is ten years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for April 30. Roupe is detained in federal custody.
Roupe is the second sex offender prosecuted in Rhode Island under SORNA, which Congress enacted in 2006 as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.