KINGSHILL — USVI Attorney General Denise George today announced the filing of formal criminal charges against 55-year-old Avery Monsanto in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands.
Monsanto of Harbor View Housing Community is a registered sex offender and was arrested and charged with failure to register as a sex offender.
His advice-of-rights hearing was held on Friday at the Superior Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands Superior Court Magistrate Judge Ernest Morris, Jr. who implemented pretrial release conditions with the following conditions: an unsecured bond of $25,000; report to probation office on a weekly basis, require written permission to leave the territory, remain employed, no direct contact with any witness or victim in his case, surrender his passport and not violate any laws of the Virgin Islands.
Registered sexual offenders in the territory may be prosecuted for either failing to register or not keeping their registration current, as required by this law, and if convicted, the penalty is a fine of not less than $3,000.00 nor more than $5,000.00, or imprisonment for not less than three months nor more than two years, or both.
The law also provides that it is an offense to assist a sex offender to evade the registration requirements, which carries a fine of not less than $1,000.00 nor more than $2,000.00, or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.
According to information filed detailing the arrest, on March 9, 2020, U.S. Probation officers were conducting a routine check on an individual who is on probation.
After entering the home in Mount Pleasant, one of the officers recognized another male individual in the house Avery Monsanto as someone he had monitored in the past.
The officers then exited the home with the individual on probation and inquired if he was aware that Monsanto is a registered sex offender.
The individual indicated that he was not aware. He said that his mother’s boyfriend, Monsanto, who he knows as “KC” had moved into the home around June of 2019.
He stated that his mother, sister, and grandmother also reside at the home. According to the Sexual Registry registration form, an investigation revealed that Mr. Avery Monsanto’s alias is “KC.”
There were also documents that indicated Monsanto had been homeless with no fixed address.
Monsanto has been required to report to the Department of Justice on a weekly basis to report any address updates.
Therefore, he violated his registry conditions by not reporting that he was residing at the Mount Pleasant Home.
In 2003, Monsanto was convicted of unlawful sexual contact 1 st degree for engaging with a female between the ages of 10 & 11 and an unlawful sexual contact domestic violence conviction in 1986.
On March 12, 2020, Monsanto was advised of his rights which he signed and declined to give a statement. He was then remanded to the Bureau of Corrections.
A team of Special Agents from local and federal agencies, routinely conduct unannounced inspections of registered sexual offenders for the purpose of verifying their locations and other personal information, such as their work and home addresses.
Within three business days of arriving at a new location, a registered sexual offender must notify the DOJ of his/her name, residence, temporary lodging information, vehicle information, Internet identifiers, telephone numbers, school information, and employment status.
In 1997, the Virgin Islands enacted its first sex offender registration statute and in 2006, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 was enacted by Congress. Title I of that Act is known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act or SORNA.
This Act established a new baseline standard for states to track sex offenders, which required more unity and cooperation among jurisdictions in the registration and notification process.
On July 18, 2012, amendments were made to the local sex offender statute and the Sexual Offender Registration and Community Protection Act was signed into law in the Virgin Islands.