WANTED: Brian G. Thomas

Waukesha police were searching Monday for a registered sex offender who disappeared from electronic monitoring the same day officers were seeking to question him in connection with a reported sexual assault, Sgt. John Konkol said.

An alarm sounded Thursday, notifying police that Brian G. Thomas, 31, was out of his permitted range.

He might still be wearing his electronic monitoring device, said Sally Tess, regional chief for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, but the monitor Thomas was wearing alerts authorities only that he is within a specified range. It does not track his movements out of the range, she said.

Police were notified about 8:30 a.m. Thursday that a sexual assault occurred 90 minutes prior on Grand Ave. Investigators wanted to question Thomas in connection with the assault, but his alarm sounded, and when police went to his residence in the 1100 block of Delafield St., he wasn't there.

The reported assault occurred during Thomas' allowed time out of range, Tess said.

He is wanted on a warrant alleging he violated the rules of supervision. He is not charged with the assault that occurred on Grand Ave., Konkol said.

He was convicted of third-degree sexual assault in 1996 in Milwaukee.

UPDATE

A convicted sex offender who has been on the lam for the past two weeks was arrested Sunday in Milwaukee and will be brought to Waukesha for questioning regarding a reported assault here, police said Wednesday.

Brian G. Thomas, 31, was arrested in the 2900 block of North Second Street at about 1:50 p.m. Sunday, said Milwaukee Police Sgt. James Shepard. Police were sent there on a request to apprehend a wanted man. Officers then learned Thomas was wanted on two warrants, a probation violation and a warrant for possessing marijuana in Milwaukee.

Shepard said he saw nothing in the report on the matter to indicate the arrest came with difficulty.

Thomas was sought by police Dec. 13 after a woman on Grand Avenue in Waukesha reported he sexually assaulted her. When officers went to the Delafield Street address listed for Thomas, he was not found.