Wayne County, Michigan

Sheriff Contact: John Roach – 313.213.5162
Release Date: Thursday, September 7, 2006

Local police agencies team up to arrest area sex offender registry violators

A joint investigation conducted by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and the Western Wayne County Metro Street Enforcement Team (MSET) has led to the arrest of 17 registered sex offenders who have violated the requirements of Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act, Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans and Westland Police Chief Daniel Pfannes announced today.

Over the past several weeks, investigators from the various agencies have reviewed files in six suburban communities – Westland, Livonia, Garden City, Taylor, Inkster and Romulus – as part of Operation Safe Passage. The effort was designed to take sex offenders who are actively avoiding detection off the streets as children head back to school.

During their investigation, officers uncovered 31 instances in which individuals had failed to comply with the Sex Offender Registry Act, either by failing to report their new address to authorities, or for neglecting to verify their address on a periodic basis. Ten of those cases involved individuals who had victimized children. Failing to verify a current address is typically a 93-day misdemeanor while failing to notify authorities of a change of address results in a new four-year felony charge.

“The Sex Offender Registry was set up to protect innocent people in our community from sexual predators. In order for it to be effective, we need to make sure people are complying with the system,” Pfannes said.

During the two-day operation, officers were able to locate and arrest 17 of their targets. Among those who failed to register his new address was Robert Zywot, 50, of Westland, and Frank Caudill, 26, of Garden City. Both men were arrested and face felony charges for failing to comply with the terms of the state registry. Zywot was originally convicted of 3 rd-degree criminal sexual contact and Caudill was convicted of 4 th degree CSC.

“Sex offenders are particularly troubling to us in law enforcement because of the predatory nature of their crimes and the fact that many of them often repeat their offenses,” Evans said. “We are choosing to be proactive with this population to catch them when their offenses are relatively minor, before they get a chance to victimize anyone else.”

As part of this proactive effort to keep tabs on area sex offenders, Evans also assigned his Spot Check unit to make unannounced visits to the homes of more than 60 registered sex offenders, currently on parole or probation, in the target communities. The purpose of the unit is to use the random visits to keep the previous offenders on their toes, which Evans has found, keeps them honest.

“During the first day of the operation, we visited 30 homes and found no significant violations, which is a good thing,” Evans said. “I think that is due in large part to the fact that they know they can expect a visit from us at any time. And just because we didn’t find anything out of order today, doesn’t mean we won’t be back again soon.”