Brandon Laferty Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison For Failure To Register As A Sex Offender

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On Apr. 1, 2013, Brandon Lee Laferty, 27, of Sullivan County, Tenn., was sentenced by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, U.S. District Judge, to serve 30 months in prison for failure to register as a sex offender. Upon his release from prison, Laferty will serve 15 years on supervised release.

In 2011, Laferty was sentenced by the Sullivan County Criminal Court to serve 10 years of probation, and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device, for solicitation to commit aggravated sexual battery on a 12-year-old child. This required him to register as a sex offender. After transferring his probation to Hawkins County, Tenn., Laferty removed the device and fled from his probation officer. When Hawkins County sheriff’s deputies located him in Hawkins County in November 2011, he attempted to attack them, resulting in gunshot wounds to Laferty’s chest. After the monitoring device was reinstalled on Laferty, he removed it a second time and fled to Roxanna, Ill., where U.S. Marshals arrested him in April 2012.

During sentencing, Judge Greer noted that communities are entitled to notice that a convicted sex offender has entered the community. He further remarked that Laferty’s attempt to attack the Hawkins County officers and his removal of the electronic monitoring devices demonstrated a profound lack of respect for the law and law enforcement officers. Incarceration was needed because the 10 year state court probationary sentence was not effective. The obvious need to protect the public from Laferty justified a sentence at the top of the sentencing range.

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Laferty were the result of an investigation conducted by the Sullivan County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office, Hawkins County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office, and U.S. Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Smith represented the United States.