John J. Freitas III - Repeat Sex offender - Captured

Conviction(s)

Offenses=1 Conviction=INDECENT ASSAULT AND BATTERY ON CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS OF AGE Conviction Date=10/17/1986
Offenses=1 Conviction=INDECENT ASSAULT AND BATTERY ON CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS OF AGE Conviction Date=3/27/1987
Offenses=2 Conviction=INDECENT ASSAULT AND BATTERY ON CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS OF AGE Conviction Date=7/27/1978
Offenses=2 Conviction=RAPE AND ABUSE OF CHILD Conviction Date=7/27/1978

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

A high-level sex offender on the state's list of 10 Most Wanted was ordered held in jail on $10,000 cash bail a day after he surrendered to police after eluding arrest for two years.

John J. Freitas III, 54, a Level 3 sex offender, was ordered jailed by Attleboro District Court Judge James Sullivan after he pleaded innocent to failing to register as a sex offender (subsequent offense).

Freitas, who has been wanted for two years by local and state police for failing to register as a sex offender, surrendered to police Thursday after friends told him they saw his face on TV.

State police placed Freitas on the list of the state's 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders Monday, along with four other men, and conducted a media blitz in an attempt to locate them.

Freitas had been living at the Pineapple Inn on Route 1, but police discovered during a routine audit of sex offenders that he moved out with a girlfriend in November 2006, Assistant District Attorney Jessica Lennon said.

Freitas's notoriety as a sex offender has made him a target of harassment, despite having only motor vehicle violations on his record in the last 18 years, his lawyer, Mark J. Beland of Attleboro, said during a bail hearing.

"He ultimately became homeless, your honor," Beland said.

Freitas served prison time in the late 1970s and early 1980s for rape of a child and indecent assault and battery and was released around 1990, his lawyer said.

Freitas moved out of an apartment in Stoughton, where he was harassed by his landlord, before moving to North Attleboro, Beland said. The harassment led to the prosecution of the landlord, he added.

Freitas ended up moving out of the Pineapple Inn after flyers were placed around the motel about his background as a high-risk sex offender, Beland said.

Beland asked the judge to release Freitas without bail, saying he had lived openly in homeless shelters and had worked with Brown University students for the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless.

"He hasn't been trying to hide," Beland said. "He's been living openly in the community."

His girlfriend of four years, a 49-year-old East Providence woman who did not want to give her name, defended Freitas after his arraignment.

"He's a great guy. He's worked with the homeless. He's been trying to make a difference. It's just not fair," she said, holding back tears.

Lennon requested Freitas be held in jail on $10,000 cash bail, saying he faced a serious charge of failing to register that is punishable by a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison.

She also filed a motion that would require Freitas to be on parole for the rest of his life if he is convicted of the charge.

He is due back in court April 7.