The U.S. Marshals Service in Denver has formed a task force to prosecute sex offenders who fail to register when they move from state to state, officials said Wednesday.
The announcement comes a week after Matthew Preston Caulk became the first person in Colorado indicted under the 2006 Adam Walsh Act on allegations that he failed to register when he moved from Montana to Golden.
Caulk, 41, was living with a 16-year-old girl when he was arrested, authorities say. He was convicted in 2002 in Washington state of second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor.
The task force is made up of officers from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and sheriff’s offices in El Paso, Weld and Mesa counties.
The marshals want more local agencies to join the task force to help fulfill the mandates of the Adam Walsh Act, which requires authorities to investigate interstate sex offenders and upload current data, such as DNA and photographs, into a national database.
The federal statute is named for the son of “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh; the boy was kidnapped and killed in 1981.
The act makes it a felony when sex offenders leave the state where they last lived and fail to register in the state where they have moved.
Before the Adam Walsh Act, federal authorities charged the offense as a misdemeanor. Now, convictions can bring up to 10 years in federal prison, depending on the severity of the case.
U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said the law cannot be applied retroactively to sex offenders who failed to register before July 2006.
