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Press Release

Fairview Heights Man Sentenced For Failure To Register As A Sex Offender

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Illinois

Otto W. Jean, a 60-year old, Fairview Heights, Illinois, man was sentenced on April 7, 2014, in federal district court in East St. Louis, Illinois, on one count of failure to register as a sex offender, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Jean was sentenced to 5 years’ probation, fined $150 and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment.

The violation occurred when Jean moved his residence from Missouri to Fairview Heights, Illinois, in November 2011, without registering as a sex offender as required under both Illinois law and the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Jean was convicted of Statutory Sodomy in the 2nd Degree, Statutory Rape, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child on March 1, 2000, in St. Louis County, Missouri.

Jean signed a Missouri Sex Offender Registration Act Form on May 3, 2000, acknowledging he understood the conditions of maintaining his sex offender registration after his release from prison. The victim’s mother in the 2001 conviction reported him residing within the city limits to the Fairview Heights Police Department. Officers interviewed Jean on July 28, 2013, where he admitted living in Illinois, between November 2011 and July, 27, 2013, and not having registered, until police confronted him on July 28, 2013.

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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

The case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service and the Fairview Heights Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Daniel T. Kapsak prosecuted the case.

Updated February 19, 2015