A sex offender who failed to register when he moved to Iowa pled guilty on January 13, 2012, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

Earnest Twaite, age 55, from Cedar Rapids, was convicted of one count of failure to register as a sex offender.

At the plea hearing, Twaite admitted that, between November 10, 2011, and December 6, 2011, after moving to Iowa, he knowingly failed to register as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Twaite was required to register because of his 2001 conviction in California for a sex offense involving a minor.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Twaite remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Twaite faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and supervised release for 5 years to life following his imprisonment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the United States Marshals Service and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 11-163.

 

 

Return to Top