SWEETWATER COUNTY — Under state law, the Division of Criminal Investigation’s Sexual Offender Registration Unit maintains the Wyoming Sex Offender Registry.
The Sheriff’s Offices of Wyoming are charged with facilitating actual sex offender registration. Offenders are photographed and fingerprinted and must also provide a range of information, including address, place of employment, and vehicle information. They must notify authorities if they move or change jobs.
The information and photographs are collected and sent electronically to DCI in Cheyenne, which then enters the information into the state’s database and into National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
Wyoming offenders’ photographs and other information are then posted on the DCI website at http://wysors.dci.wyo.gov/sor/ . On the site, people can sign up for no charge for OffenderWatch, which provides offender information and email alerts.
The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office website provides a link to the state’s online registration pages, and people living within 1,000 feet of an offender’s residence receive a notification flyer if the offender meets certain standards determined by DCI.
At present, there are 105 registered offenders living in Sweetwater County.
The United States Department of Justice maintains the national NCIC sex offender registry website at www.nsopr.gov, which is called the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Website after Dru Kathrina Sjodin, a University of North Dakota student who was the victim of kidnapping, rape, and murder in 2003 at the hands of convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. Rodriguez was convicted of Sjodin’s murder and sentenced to death in 2006.
County detectives routinely make random registered offender compliance checks and recently made four arrests. In addition, they often team up with the United States Marshals Service in carrying out wide-scale compliance check sweeps. Last year, a total of 910 checks were conducted in Sweetwater, Laramie, Natrona, Fremont, Uinta, and Converse Counties; seven arrests were made and charges were filed against a total of 12 offenders.
A little more than a year ago, sex offender James Joe Nordwall, 58, received seven separate 45-50 year prison sentences in District Court in Green River on four counts of First Degree Rape and three counts of Sexual Assault in the First Degree for crimes reaching as far back as the early 1970s.
Sheriff’s Office detectives began their investigation in the Nordwall case when it was discovered that he had not registered as a sex offender upon his release from the Wyoming State Penitentiary, where he’d served time on sexual assault charges.
The lead investigator in the case, Detective Michelle Hall, discovered the existence and identities of sexual assault and rape victims of Nordwall’s from 1971, 1973, 1989, and 1992. Hall filed her charges with prosecutors and arrested Nordwall, who was found guilty at trial in March. The charges involved five female victims, several of which were children age 12 to 14 at the time.
One fugitive sex offender who made the Sheriff’s Office most wanted list was captured in Alaska in May. Robert William Bousquet, who was convicted of rape in Idaho in 2004, was wanted on felony theft charges in the theft of a dozen rifles, handguns, and shotguns from a Rock Springs residence. Bousquet was also wanted by Federal authorities for felon in possession of a firearm.
Working with the United States Marshals Service, Sheriff’s Office SNAAG (Sheriff’s Narcotics and Arrest Group) detectives tracked Bousquet through Idaho, then Washington, and ultimately to Anchorage, Alaska, where he was arrested without incident by U.S. Marshals.
“The Sheriff’s Office has always pursued prosecution of non-compliant offenders and we will continue to go right on doing so,” said Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell.