Sex Offender Charged For Failing to Register In Massachusetts

BOSTON – A Brockton man was charged today in U.S. District Court in Boston for failing to register as a sex offender. 

Charles Towers, 52, was indicted on one count of failing to register as a sex offender.  In May 2016, Towers was arrested and charged in a criminal complaint.

According to court documents, in October 2009, Towers was convicted in San Diego Superior Court of attempted forcible oral copulation and sentenced to 18 months in jail and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.     

Upon release from jail, Towers registered as a sex offender in California.  In April 2014, Towers moved from San Diego to Brockton and failed to both notify the San Diego Police Department’s Sex Offender Unit of his change of address and to register as a sex offender with the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, as he was legally required to do. 

The charging statute provides a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, a minimum of five years and no longer than a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and U.S. Marshal John Gibbons of the District of Massachusetts made the announcement today.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Soivilien 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/.    

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