LEXINGTON, KY— According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky, a Richmond, Ky., man, Mark Edward Morris, 46, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on Friday, by Chief U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, for failure to register as a sex offender.
Morris was convicted on September 05, 2006, in Cass County, Iowa for Assault with Intent to Commit Sexual Abuse Causing Bodily Injury. The conviction requires that Morris register as a sex offender for life. After his conviction in Iowa, Morris moved to Kentucky and was classified as a lifetime registrant in the state of Kentucky. While living in Kentucky, Morris registered or completed numerous verification address forms from 2016 through 2019. On many of these forms Morris provided false addresses, even using a Wal-Mart address as his residence. During that period, the Kentucky State Police (KSP) issued Morris several warnings and/or Notifications of “Non-Compliance” with the KSP Sex Offender Registry. Morris then moved out of Kentucky for a period of time before moving back to Kentucky in 2022. Morris admitted in his plea agreement that he was residing and working in Kentucky from at least 2022 until the time of his arrest and that, during that time, he knowingly failed to register or update his registration information as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Under federal law, Morris must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence; and upon his release, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for five years.
Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Jeremy Honaker, Acting U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Kentucky, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Roth.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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