LAKE COUNTY ? Wanted parolee and alleged high-risk sex-offender Stoney Martin Prior, 31 was apprehended. Department of Corrections Region II Public Information Officer Fred Bridgewater reported that Prior was taken into custody around 8 p.m. on Saturday.
According to Bridgewater, Prior was taken into custody March 28 by Humboldt County, Nevada Sheriff”s deputies and officers of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He is facing charges for failing to register as a sex offender as well as grand theft.
Authorities had been searching for Prior since March 13 after he reportedly removed an electronic tracking bracelet from his ankle in the area of Main Street, Lower Lake.
“(Prior”s) location was discovered through an investigation by parole officers here in California,” Bridgewater said. “He was somebody we wanted to get off the street. Agent Eckenrod, (the assigned parole agent of record on the case) was really diligent in facilitating and coordinating the apprehension of this parolee.”
Bridgewater said that Prior will be charged with parole violations as well as grand theft. “He is going to be charged with Penal Code 290 for failing to register as a sex offender and we are going to charge him with grand theft for loss of the GPS equipment. He will also have a parole violation for absconding parole supervision,” Bridgewater said.
Bridgewater would like to take this opportunity to inform the public of a newly-established monitoring unit that recently went active in the California Department of Corrections. “We just implemented, on the 9th of March, a new GPS unit that is responsible for supervising all sex offenders on parole in the North Bay district, which includes Mendocino and Lake Counties,” he said.
The new unit will assist in monitoring sex offenders and ensuring their compliance with requirements of their parole.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
