New York Man Charged with Failing to Register as a Sex Offender

BOSTON – A Schenectady, N.Y., man was charged in federal court in Springfield yesterday with failing to register as a sex offender.

Jose Dones was charged in an indictment with one count of failing to register as a sex offender.

According to court documents, Dones was convicted in 1994 of second degree rape and in 2008 of forcible touching. Dones has received many notices of his obligation to register as a sex offender, and he has been convicted four times in New York state court of failure to register as a sex offender. In 2016, Dones was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in federal court in Massachusetts. 

In November 2017, Dones lived in Boston without registering as a sex offender while on supervised release in connection with his 2016 failure to register conviction. Then in December 2017, Dones moved to Schenectady, N.Y., where he again failed to register as a sex offender. On Jan. 10, 2018, Dones was arrested in Schenectady.

The charge provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and John Gibbons, United States Marshal for the District of Massachusetts, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex J. Grant of Lelling’s Springfield Branch Office is prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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 via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.