Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Failing to Register and Assault on an Officer

POCATELLO - Ronald Lee Chaney, 34, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, pleaded guilty yesterday to failing to register as a sex offender and assault on an officer, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.  Chaney was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pocatello on August 27, 2013.

According to the plea agreement, Chaney was convicted in May 2002, of sexual abuse of a child under the age of sixteen years in Idaho.  As a result of the conviction, the defendant was required to register and update his registration under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).  SORNA requires that sex offenders register and keep current their registration in each jurisdiction where they reside.

Chaney’s last registered address, according to the plea agreement, was a half-way house in Arkansas in May 2013.  On July 1, 2013, the defendant and another fugitive sex offender travelled by bus from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Pocatello, Idaho, where Chaney resided until he was arrested on August 7, 2013.  In an attempt to avoid arrest Chaney jumped from a third story window and forcibly assaulted and impeded a Pocatello police detective who was assisting the United States Marshals Service apprehend Chaney.  The Pocatello police detective’s report indicates that Chaney punched him on the forehead during the encounter, and also that the defendant placed his hands around the detective’s neck and squeezed.

The crime of failure to register as a sex offender is punishable by up to ten years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000.00, and up to a life term of supervised release.  Assault of an officer is punishable by up to eight years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.

Sentencing is set for November 17, 2015, before U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Pocatello.

The case was investigated by the Idaho Sex Offender Watch Task Force (ISOW) and the United States Marshals Service (USMS).

Ronald Lee Chaney was prosecuted for a violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) passed by Congress in 2006.  The Act requires sex offenders to register and keep their registration current in each jurisdiction where they reside.  Violations of SORNA can be prosecuted in federal court.