VT- Man denies guilt in offender registry case

What is interesting here is, apparently in Vermont if one is homeless they are required to check-in with police DAILY which is totally absurd. Consider this, if one is NOT homless and on the registry, the police allegedly know where he MAY BE sleeping (his registered address), but the police do not know where he is any other time of day. What is so special about homeless offenders that the police must know daily where they have been? What we have is a case of discrimination!

4-27-2009 Vermont:

BENNINGTON – A man who has prior convictions for robbery, federal charges of gun possession and sex crimes was arraigned on Tuesday after police said he lied to local police and the Vermont Sex Offender Registry about where he was living.

Jamie R. Dunnells, 36, whose address is listed in court documents as Manchester, pleaded innocent in Bennington District Court on Tuesday to three misdemeanor charges of failing to comply with the Vermont Sex Offender Registry.

In an affidavit, Bennington Police Detective Lawrence Cole said Dunnells was convicted of sexual assault on a person younger than 16 in Windsor District Court in August 2001.

Dunnells was convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 1996 in Bethel and sentenced to serve four to 12 years, but the sentence was to run at the same time as sentences from the federal court and the court in New York.

In 1997, Dunnells and his brother, Terry E. Dunnells, robbed a Stewart's convenience store in Hoosick, N.Y. Dunnells pointed an unloaded .22 caliber rifle at employees while his brother grabbed money from the back room, according to police.

Dunnells was convicted in New York of second-degree armed robbery in 1998.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2000 after he pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while a convicted felon.

Dunnells "failed to report for supervised release as required" in November 2007 and was ordered to serve another year.

After being released from federal prison in November, Dunnells came to Bennington where he told officials at the Vermont Sex Offender Registry and Cole that he would be homeless.

Dunnells was required to check in daily and did so until March 31, but Cole said police learned that Dunnells had not been in the places where he said he stayed.

Cole said Dunnells had reported spending the night in a "smoking hut" on the grounds of the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington.

A Bennington police officer checked the area on March 24 and 25 and never saw Dunnells. Security officers from the hospital said they had never seen anyone in the smoking hut overnight either.

At the end of March, Dunnells told officials at the Vermont Sex Offender Registry that he was staying with his girlfriend on North Bennington Road.

Cole said he investigated the home and found that Dunnells had stayed there several times when he said was staying somewhere else.

According to Cole, Dunnells said he was concerned that if he admitted to staying with his girlfriend, it would affect the amount of financial support she received from the state.

When Dunnells was released from prison at the end of last year, Essex Police, believing he planned to live there while homeless, issued a release calling him a high-risk sex offender. While Dunnells is listed as "noncompliant" with treatment on the Vermont Sex Offender Registry, he is not described as high risk.

Dunnells was released without bail on Tuesday. If convicted of the charges against him, he could be sentenced to up to six years in prison. ..News Source.. by PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER