Sex offenders' addresses do get checked

http://www.sunherald.com/201/v-print/story/202316.html

South Mississippi Sun Herald

Sex offenders' addresses do get checked
By ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.com


-- A woman convicted of a sex crime against a child is wanted on a warrant in Harrison County. She's accused of giving a false address in her latest 90-day visit to a state driver's license office.

A sheriff's investigator obtained a warrant for 50-year-old Beatrice Garza Soliz after learning she doesn't live on Bohn Street in Biloxi, said Sheriff's Capt. Ron Pullen.

The owner of the home has never heard of her, according to a Sound Off. The caller blamed the Sheriff's Department for failing to ask for proof to confirm Soliz's address. But that's not the case, said Pullen.

"She was registered with us," Pullen said, "but once she changed her address through the state, they notified us of the change and we updated our records. We just found out that the state Department of Public Safety didn't ask for proof of address and doesn't require proof. We're trying to get them to change that."

DPS spokeswoman Delores Lewis said that's not her understanding of how the state keeps track of where sex offenders live.

"Generally speaking, we do address verification," Lewis said, "but I can't speak to that specific situation. I would have to look into it."

Mississippi requires convicted sex offenders to register with the sheriff's office in the county they move to after serving their time. A law change in 2005 requires them to verify their address in person every 90 days at a state driver's license office.

"We require them to show a power bill, a water bill, a rental agreement or something similar with their name on it when they register with us," said Pullen.

After an offender registers or moves elsewhere in Harrison County, the Sheriff's Department sends out a postcard to notify neighbors.

The state Sex Offender Registry shows Soliz, convicted in 1992 of indecency with a child/sexual contact, in Fresno County, Calif., last verified her address Oct. 24.

"If we send someone to their address and cannot make contact, we take it a step further and send an investigator," said Pullen. "If they don't live there, we don't hunt them down to ask them to register. We get a warrant."

Failing to register or providing a false address is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Anyone who knows of Soliz' whereabouts is asked to call the Sheriff's Department at 865-7060 or the nearest police department. Records show Soliz has used similar names, including Beatriz and Gutierrez as first or last names.