A Hollister man who failed to register under the Megan’s Law
requirement may face up to six years in prison as a result,
District Attorney John Sarsfield said.
Police learned Richard Allen Bray, 55, was a sex offender when
they pulled him over for expired registration tags on his car and
ran a records check on Aug. 28. Bray, who was previously found
guilty of lewd acts with a child in Santa Clara County, lives on
the 300 block of Nash Road, across the street from San Benito High
School.
Hollister – A Hollister man who failed to register under the Megan’s Law requirement may face up to six years in prison as a result, District Attorney John Sarsfield said.
Police learned Richard Allen Bray, 55, was a sex offender when they pulled him over for expired registration tags on his car and ran a records check on Aug. 28. Bray, who was previously found guilty of lewd acts with a child in Santa Clara County, lives on the 300 block of Nash Road, across the street from San Benito High School.
Offenders have five days to register with the county upon arrival, according to Detective Sgt. James Weathers. Bray had last registered in December of 2001, according to a police report.
Bray’s prior conviction, which gave him one strike on his record, was in 1985, and the last place Bray was registered was Modesto. Because he has one strike, and this is his second felony, Bray’s sentence could be double what the standard jail time is, according to Sarsfield.
There are 112 sex offenders living in Hollister, and 37 within the county, and Sarsfield said his office handles roughly 10 of these cases a year.
“The reason why we go after sex offenders who don’t register is because the recidivism rate is very high, and when they go out on compliance, the community can’t protect themselves,” Sarsfield said. “I think it’s important for sex offenders to know if they violate the law, they will be prosecuted to the maximum. Our community is not going to coddle them.”
Sarsfield’s sure there are other unregistered offenders in the county, but Weathers said a simple traffic stop can put them behind bars.
“Even if someone isn’t currently registered in the county, a records check will tell us where and when they were ever registered,” he said.
Bray will be arraigned Thursday, Sept. 23 on one count of failing to register as a sex offender.
Megan’s Law is the term used to cover a set of laws that allows the public to access information about sex offender registries and requires residents to be informed of neighbors with violent sex-crime convictions. It is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl murdered by a sex offender who lived across the street from her, unbeknownst to her parents.
