4/16/09 – Alamo cohort [Curry] to change plea on failure-to-register charge
NWAnews
April 16, 2009
A man arrested on a charge of failure to register as a sex offender after he was found at a Tony Alamo Christian Ministries warehouse in Fort Smith plans to change his plea, court documents indicate.
Jonathon Patrick Curry, 49, was arrested Jan. 13 on a charge of failure to comply with the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
He pleaded innocent to the charge March 11, but a court clerk filed a notice this week that a “change of plea” hearing has been set for May 13. A trial that had been set for Wednesday was canceled. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Assistant U.S. attorney Chris Plumlee said Wednesday that he couldn’t provide further information about the hearing. Curry’s attorney, federal public defender Bruce Eddy, didn’t return a call seeking comment.
Prosecutors say Curry, who is being held in lieu of bond in the Sebastian County jail, served more than five years in a Nevada prison on a charge of attempted lewdness with a child younger than 14 and failed to register as a sex offender after his release on Nov. 20, 2007.
In an affidavit for an arrest warrant, an FBI agent said he spoke with Curry at the Fort Smith warehouse Nov. 18 of last year and saw a room at the warehouse labeled “Keep Out Jon Curry’s Rm.” The agent said he later learned that Curry had not registered as a sex offender in Nevada or Arkansas.