Boston Sex Offender Sentenced for Failing to Register

BOSTON – James Edward Mercer, 49, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 21 months in prison and five years of supervised release.  In May 2015, Mercer pleaded guilty to failing to register as a convicted sex offender.

Mercer was previously convicted in Massachusetts in 1992 and again in 1996 of indecent assault and battery on a person above the age of 14.  As a result of these convictions, Mercer was classified as a sex offender and is required to register as such in each state in which he resides through December 2018.  Mercer first registered as a sex offender in 2005 in Massachusetts.  Thereafter he moved to Florida where he failed to register and was convicted, serving a 12 month probation sentence.  Following that, Mercer moved to California where he registered; however, in December 2014, Mercer returned to Massachusetts and failed to register as a sex offender here.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal for the District of Massachusetts, made the announcement today.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth B. Orkand of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit.

The case is brought as part of Project Safe Childhood.  In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse.  Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.