A convicted sex offender who has failed to register with the
police department for 12 years was arrested Thursday evening when
officers noticed a taillight of his vehicle wasn’t working.
Morgan Hill – A convicted sex offender who has failed to register with the police department for 12 years was arrested Thursday evening when officers noticed a taillight of his vehicle wasn’t working.
Guillermo Hernandez, 32, was booked into Santa Clara County Jail for failure to register as a sex offender.
The last time Hernandez registered in Morgan Hill was in 1995, according to Morgan Hill police Cmdr. Joe Sampson. Sometime after that, he moved to Washington, he told police, but did not register there.
When he returned to Morgan Hill in April, Hernandez didn’t bother to stop in at the police department and register, although he told officers he knew that he should have, Sampson said.
Morgan Hill police officers David Ray and James Hankins found Hernandez in the parking lot behind Ernie’s Bar and Grill on Monterey Road in north Morgan Hill.
The two officers were driving by at approximately 7:50pm to check the area, when they saw Hernandez in a vehicle backing up. The vehicle had no back-up light, Sampson said, so Ray and Hankins stopped Hernandez, and in checking his identification, found out he was a registered sex offender who had not registered.
“He didn’t make any excuses, he knew he was supposed to register, he just didn’t bother to do it,” Sampson said Friday.
Failure to register is punishable by jail time. Sex offenders are required to register yearly, within five days of their birthday, or within five days of moving to a new location.
The Department of Justice maintains a sex offender data base, which is updated with information from the local law enforcement agencies as the sex offenders register.
