Sex Offender From Illinois Pleads Guilty to Failing to Register in Mississippi

Gulfport, Miss. – Clynn Partee, 46, of Pascagoula, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., to the federal crime of failure to register as a sex offender, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and U.S. Marshal George White.

Partee is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Guirola on February 21, 2019, in Gulfport. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison in addition to a $250,000 fine and a minimum of 5 years to life of supervised release.

In 2006, Partee had been convicted in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, of Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault. This sexual offense was perpetrated against a 12-year old female victim, and Partee was sentenced to eight years with the Illinois Department of Corrections. Partee was deemed a Tier III Sex Offender and has a lifetime registration requirement. After his conviction in Illinois, Partee acknowledged his continuing requirement to register as a sex offender. In or about June 2015, Partee was released from Illinois state custody.

Later in 2015, Partee moved from Illinois to Mississippi.  He did not register as required when he departed Illinois, and he did not register within the required time of his arrival in Mississippi. Partee was issued a Mississippi State Identification card in or about September 2015, with an address in Richton, Mississippi, and ultimately relocated to Pascagoula.

In September 2018, Pascagoula Police responded to a disturbance call at a hotel in Pascagoula and encountered Partee. While Partee was not arrested during that encounter, a National Criminal Information Center database check was conducted regarding him. It was brought to the attention of a sex offense investigator with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, that Partee was a convicted sex offender, and that he had been listed as a non-compliant sex offender in Illinois. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Investigator contacted the U.S. Marshals Service, which conducted further investigation.

The Marshals Service learned that Partee was not listed as a registered sex offender in the State of Mississippi, via the Mississippi Sex Offender Registry. The Marshals Service contacted the Mississippi Department of Public Safety concerning the Defendant’s current sex offender registration status. Mississippi authorities provided the Marshals Service with a letter certifying that Defendant Partee was not listed as a registered sex offender in Mississippi. The State of Mississippi also had not received a notification from the State of Illinois indicating the Defendant’s intent to relocate to Mississippi. It was conclusively determined that Partee had never registered as a sex offender in the State of Mississippi.

The Marshals Service investigation concluded that Partee’s current residence was at a Pascagoula hotel that also routinely houses a wide variety of people including children. Partee was arrested by local law enforcement officials as a non-compliant sex offender in September 2018. Subsequent to his federal indictment, Partee was arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Service in October 2018.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Marshal’s Service, law enforcement officials in the State of Illinois, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the Jackson County, Mississippi, Sheriff’s Office, and the City of Pascagoula Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stan Harris.