Countywide sting targets sex offenders

Two cans of beer in the fridge. That was enough for members of the Region 2 Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team (SAFE) to arrest a 29-year-old registered sexual offender (RSO) living in a Martinez apartment for violating a parole “no alcohol” clause during a massive, multi-law enforcement agency operation this week.

100 agents gathered in the early afternoon on Thursday at the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office (CCCSO) facility on Muir Road to strategize before breaking into small bands and heading out to every city in the County, as well as unincorporated areas of Contra Costa, in a well orchestrated campaign - one that had been in the works for months - attempting to check in simultaneously on over 200 of the County’s “290s,” a term applied to those convicted of sexual-related crimes derived from the California Penal Code section mandating that “every person described [as a sex offender], for the rest of his or her life,” register with the police.

Officers from a long list of California and federal law enforcement agencies volunteered for the operation, such as those from the U.S. Marshal Service, California State Parole Department and the Del Norte, Santa Clara and Lake County Sheriff’s Offices. Martinez Police officers joined their police colleagues on Friday.

The CCCSO invited the Gazette and a reporter and photographer from the Contra Costa Times to attend the briefing and shadow the agents assigned to Martinez on Thursday, in an effort to bring public awareness to the operation, said CCCSO spokesperson Jimmy Lee.

As the operation wrapped up on Friday afternoon, 29 registered sex offenders had been taken into custody, mostly for probation violations and parole holds, said CCCSO Captain Daniel Terry and Jimmy Lee. Terry and Lee also confirmed that a few of the arrests resulted from drug or gun possessions, and two were in possession of child pornography. One “290” visited in Bay Point was interrupted by agents during a methamphetamine cooking session.

“It’s not unusual when we do these kind of sweeps that we stumble across a lot of crimes unrelated to sexual offenses, such as drugs or guns,” said Terry. As for the 29-year-old man arrested in Martinez, “it’s not uncommon for parolees to have a ‘no alcohol’ [possession] clause,” Terry said. The arrestee is not listed on the Megan’s Law Website because he did not meet the criteria to be included, said Lee.

Terry explained that there are currently 1350 active ‘290s’ in the county, and another 400 that are ‘missing;’ their whereabouts are unknown to police.

350 registered sex offenders live at addresses within the jurisdiction of the CCCSO, and Terry said that he only has the staff power of one detective managing all those cases.

This week’s operation was funded via a state grant disbursed through the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, allocated for the Region 2 SAFE operation. Region 2 includes all nine Bay Area counties, as well as neighboring Northern California counties. The California Attorney General’s office overseas the funding and describes that the task force’s purpose is to “reduce violent sexual assault crimes through proactive enforcement focused on predatory sex offenders.”

Around 3 p.m. on Thursday, police arrived at a large apartment complex in Martinez, a location where three registered sex offenders have listed as their address.

During the briefing session, while CCCSO Lt. Steve Warne had encouraged the agents to “have fun out there today and stay dry,” Sgt. Jackson, heading up the briefing session, cautioned the agents several times to check in on each ‘290’ in as ‘low-key’ a manner as possible. He also emphasized a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards no alcohol and porn parole clauses and indicated that staff at the county jails had been notified of the maneuver and were standing by.

Despite instructions to “keep entries low-key,’ as the Martinez team fanned out around the apartment building, they pounded loudly on each door, their shouted orders echoing throughout the complex. Neighbors were seen cracking open their front door, startled at the commotion. One RSO did not answer the door, although officers reported seeing movement and went in through the window only to find the apartment empty. Two other RSOs admitted the police, and after a lengthy search, one was arrested for violating his parole ‘no alcohol’ clause. The man is a RSO because he had been convicted of one case of sexual battery.

He was led out of his apartment, arms handcuffed behind his back, and his ankle tracking device removed before he was placed into a police van and taken to the Martinez Jail, where he remains on a no bail parole hold.

Terry said that while police agencies around the state had been doing orchestrated campaigns such as this week’s SAFE operation for years, he admitted that the Phillip Garrido case did change many policies and procedures.

“What has changed since then is having State Parole agents on board [during such enforcement operations], we didn’t have a lot of participation at all [in the past],” said Terry. “[The Garrido case] was an educational process of the entire criminal justice system and our dealing with sex offenders, and that’s a good thing. We want to educate the public on who these people are and make sure they are complying and account for them. It’s all about accountability with them. We don’t have the time and resources to do this every week, but we do [enforcement operations] as often as we can.”