Sex Offender Sentenced for Failing to Register in Massachusetts

BOSTON – A former Amherst man was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Springfield for failing to register as a sex offender, his fifth conviction for violating his registration obligations. 

Jose Dones, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to 30 months in prison and seven years of supervised release.  In January 2016, Dones pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register as a sex offender.

Dones was designated a Level Three sex offender in New York after being convicted of rape in 1994 and forcible touching in 2008.  Dones was aware of his obligations to register as a sex offender, but failed to do so leading to four convictions in New York.  In November 2014, Dones moved from New York to Amherst, Mass. to live with a woman he met on the Internet and her children, and failed to register as a sex offender for over two months.

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 Alex J. Grant of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office.

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/.