Convicted Sex Offender Arrested In Hollywood
HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) – A convicted sex offender, who went unnoticed for years living in a Hollywood neighborhood, has been caught.
Jack Trowbridge, on August 28th, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Ft. Lauderdale and charged with knowing failure to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Trowbridge, 62, was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape in Nebraska in 1975 and was sentenced to a term between 2-4 years in prison. In 1997, Trowbridge was convicted of sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to six months in prison.
When Trowbridge was released, in 1998, he was required to register as a sex offender in the state of Nebraska but, according to authorities failed to do so.
Trowbridge moved to Texas in 2001 and continued to be non-compliant until 2010—when he moved to South Florida where he has yet to comply with the SORNA requirements.
Tuesday morning the Marshals office moved in on Trowbridge's apartment at 2534 McKinley Street and arrested him for failing to register as a sex offender in Florida--where he's been living for at least three years.
"When he was released from jail in 1998 he registered that he would be living at a certain address in Omaha, Nebraska," said Deputy U.S. Marshal Barry Golden. "When he was released from jail he never registered in the state of Nebraska again and his whereabouts were unknown."
Click here to WATCH Joan Murray's report
The media asked Trowbridge about the charges against him Tuesday morning.
Trowbridge said it was all a misunderstanding, that he was convicted on a misdemeanor out of Nebraska and that he was not required.
"I got six months time, they called it illegal touching, because I spanked a little girl on the butt—she was a friend of mine's daughter," said Trowbridge. "My friend took it all out of proportion, yeah, again it was a misdemeanor. If you have a misdemeanor, a misdemeanor can't follow you from state to state."
The U.S. Marshal's office told CBS4 they are very confident in the charges against him.
The apartment where he was living is a group home run by Sean Cononie , a well-known homeless advocate who operates several homes in Hollywood. Cononie said he was unaware and was surprised because he had done a background check that came back clean.
Cononie did work with law enforcement to make the arrest Tuesday.
"He wasn't in the computer system when we check people so as soon as U.S. Marshal's told us what was going on we double researched to see if we made any mistakes, we still couldn't find him in the computer so the last couple months we've been working with them," said Cononie.
Trowbridge's unit is located two and a half blocks from an elementary school.
Leon Kohan, a parent of a student, said the arrest was about time.
"He was hiding way too long, I mean 15 years, who knows how long he lived in Hollywood next to an elementary school, you know. I'm glad they caught him though," said Kohan.
Since 2010, the USMS has promoted more than 100 Deputy Marshals to conduct sex offender investigations in every major city in the United States to include Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
RELATED CONTENT:
