Sex offender registration failures put public at risk, judge says

More than a year after his conviction, a Port Arthur sex offender was only just this week able to register with local police — despite repeated attempts — and a district judge is pointing the blame squarely at the Port Arthur Police Department (PAPD).

July 14, Gustavo Gomez Vasquez, 46, appeared in the 252nd District Court of Jefferson County before Judge Raquel West for a hearing regarding a motion to revoke probation. Prosecutor Preston Hoffpauir asked the court to send Vasquez to prison for failing to register as a sex offender — one of the most basic and crucial conditions of his community supervision.

Vasquez, placed on deferred adjudicated on probation for 10 years pursuant to pleading guilty to indecency with a child by sexual contact, involving a 13-year-old girl, was ordered to register with the PAPD as a sex offender for his lifetime. He didn’t — because, according to Vasquez’s attorney, the police wouldn’t let him.

Carl Parker, representing Vasquez, told the court his client had been trying to register for over a year, but said Sgt. George Clark of PAPD failed to respond to repeated phone calls and in-person visits. Probation officer records support some of those claims. The Jefferson County Adult Probation officer assigned to Vasquez, Ms. (first name withheld) Simon told the court Vasquez had been in compliance with reporting to her, and “I gave him several numbers … he has shown me call logs.”

“Ms. Simon – we spoke prior, and every time she’s called Mr. Clark in regards to this she gets a call back; however, the defendant somehow doesn’t get one,” Parker explained to the court, adding that his client was even turned away when trying to register in person and was told he could only contact Clark by phone — calls that went unanswered.

“I went up there … waited for him to show up, and I talked to him; he told me the same thing: ‘Call me, leave a                   message, and I’ll get back to you,’” Vasquez swore.

Parker then took his opportunity to question Simon: “Have you ever had anybody that tried to register and said they couldn’t get ahold of anybody at all?”

“Yes,” Simon replied.

“Was it George Clark?”

“Yes,” she said.

West indicated that she would contact Sgt. Clark directly herself in attempt to sort the situation out and verify any attempts made by Vasquez to register, scheduling the sex offender to reappear in a week.

Vasquez reappeared before West again July 21.

“I have now, myself, made a phone call to Officer Clark at the Port Arthur Police Department last week — I think it was on Wednesday — and have not heard back,” the judge declared after double-checking that Clark had not called anyone else in the office or left a message while she was on the bench. “That obviously leads me to believe that there is an issue if he’s not calling the defendants back. I kinda feel like if the district judge calls you, you should call them back.”

West ultimately declined to revoke Vasquez’s probation, citing his continued attempts to comply. “I don’t disagree that Mr. Vasquez could possibly have done more, but... it sounds like even probation has seen evidence that Mr. Vasquez has tried to do what he’s supposed to do,” she said. “Based on that, I find it hard to revoke a probation when it looks like he’s trying.”

The judge said she would be speaking with the police chief personally.

“What I’m going to do after docket, since I have not received that call back, is talk to the chief over there about what is going on, because it sounds like this is not the only case where there are some issues,” West said. “These are cases where, obviously, we need to know where everybody is and, if we don’t have someone taking care of that in that office, then I think the community is at risk.”

July 21, The Examiner contacted PAPD Chief Timothy Duriso, who said he had just learned of the situation after watching the court livestream.

“I have an investigator looking into it; all of these calls are recorded, and we will have a record of every single one,” said Duriso.

According to the city’s website, Sgt. George Clark is tasked with Sex Offender Registry and Compliance. Two numbers are listed online to reach Clark, allowing messages to be left – albeit calls unreturned. Clark, however, also serves the department as an investigator and, according to Duriso, is often out “working cases, gathering evidence…” Duriso said there is another officer within PAPD that also helps with sex offender registry and compliance. The Examiner called both numbers — multiple times — without success or return calls.

As of July 21, public records showed 154 registered sex offenders living in Port Arthur. How many are out of compliance remains unknown.

“It’s still early and we are looking into it. At this point, we have one that was mentioned in court, and we are going to look and see if there are others,” said Duriso.

Sixteen months after he first attempted to register, Vasquez was finally processed by PAPD — on the afternoon of July 21, shortly after his court appearance.