POCATELLO – A federal jury sitting in Pocatello convicted a Pocatello man on April 5, 2022, for failure to register as a sex offender.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Kenneth Shaye Simmons, 46, was previously convicted in the state of Utah of sexual abuse of a child. As a result of his conviction, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) required Simmons to register as a sex offender.
In May 2020, Simmons left the state of Nevada, non-compliant with Nevada’s sex offender registry, and moved to Idaho. After moving to Idaho, Simmons failed to register as a sex offender while living in the state. He was apprehended in August 2020, after law enforcement received a tip regarding his location.
Simmons is scheduled to be sentenced on July 26, 2022, and faces a maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
“Sex offender registration and notification programs are important for public safety purposes,” said U.S. Attorney Rafael M. Gonzalez, Jr. “Sex offender registration is a system for monitoring and tracking sex offenders following their release into the community. The registration provides important information about convicted sex offenders to local and federal authorities and the public, such as offender’s name, current location, and past offenses. This office and our partners take very seriously the failure to register and will bring to justice those sexual offenders, who fail to register,” Mr. Gonzalez concluded.
U.S. Attorney Rafael M. Gonzalez, Jr., of the District of Idaho commended the cooperative efforts of the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, Pocatello Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service, which led to charges, and the Assistant U.S. Attorney, who presented the case to the jury.
Simmons was prosecuted for a violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) passed by Congress in 2006. The Act requires sex offenders to register and keep their registration current in each jurisdiction where they reside. Violations of SORNA can be prosecuted in federal court.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
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