FORMER SPRINGFIELD MAN SENTENCED FOR FAILING TO REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER
BOSTON, Mass. - Former Springfield man was sentenced on Friday in federal court for failing to register as a sex offender.
ROBERT ELLISON, a/k/a Franklin Elliott, 48, of no fixed address but previously residing in Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor to 24 months in prison, to be followed by eight years of supervised release. On April 25, 2011, ELLISON pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender
Had the case proceeded to trial the Government’s evidence would have proven that due to ELLISON’s 2000 conviction for indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, he was a sex offender who was required to register and to update his registration. Between February 2007 and July 2008, ELLISON traveled from Massachusetts to Colorado and established residence in Colorado without registering as a sex offender in Colorado and without notifying Massachusetts authorities of his change in residence.
This case was the first prosecution in Massachusetts brought under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), which was passed by Congress in 2006 to establish a comprehensive national system for the registration of sex offenders. SORNA was enacted to address the problem of the approximately 100,000 “missing” sex offenders who were not complying with state sex offender registration laws and who were escaping notice typically by moving from one state to another.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal for the District of Massachusetts made the announcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex J. Grant of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Unit.
