Sex offender on the run

By Mike Marino
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A sex offender is missing.

The Cibola County Sheriff's Department is looking for an individual who failed to register and fled jurisdiction.

"We have a warrant out for a sex offender named Vincent Forman. He also goes by the alias of Shawn Ballard. This guy used to live at 800 Melvin Street and the last time he registered with us was in August of last year. We discovered he had left town around that time and hasn't report in. We believe he is hiding out in somewhere in Texas, and to our knowledge hasn't registered there either," Lt. Harry Hall of the sheriffs department said.

"We had an accident that occurred in Milan on Dec. 23, 2005. Turns out that it was Forman who was involved in that minor DWI rollover on Elkins Road. One of our officers responded to the accident and found Forman hiding in the bushes near the accident scene. He was taken to jail and charged with misdemeanor DWI. However, after he was incarcerated he decided to hit one of the correctional officers. This was now raised to a felony," he said.

Normally the sheriffs department does not do criminal background checks on this type of incident, but the attack at the corrections facility brought in the state police, and a criminal check was done. The state police investigation on Forman found that he was an unregistered sex offender, having beenconvicted in 1997.

Forman had been living in the area for years, unregistered.

"The first time we registered him was on Dec. 29, 2005," Hall said. "He then re-registered with me on April 10, 2006. He only registered with the sheriff's department one time after his arrest."

New Mexico passed a law on July 1, 1995, that states anyone convicted of a sex offense after that date has to register once a year.

Hall said, "I have three or four sex offenders living in this county that don't have to register. They beat that law because it was not retroactive. One of them beat it by two days. They basically came to our state because they didn't have to register at the time."

On July 1, 2005, the state Legislature revamped the law to meet federal requirements.

"I call them old offenders and new offenders," Hall said. "The new law states that after July 1, 2005, if they are in prison or on probation or parole after July 1, they have to register every 90 days. They also have to tell their employer, whoever they work for, that they are a sex offender. If they go to a school or a college they also have to notify them that they are a sex offender. Not if they are online courses however. So the law was actually tightened up after July 1, but didn't affect the sex offenders before that date. Only those convicted after 2005."

Forman was supposed to register yearly. Hall got information that Forman had moved. His deadline to reregister with the department was scheduled for December 2007. Instead of waiting around for the deadline, Hall went to Forman's last-known address to investigate. Hall learned from the woman Forman had been living with that he had been gone since August of last year. The law states that if a sex offender moves their residence, they are required by law to report to the sheriff in writing within 10 days that they are moving and what the new address will be.Listings for registered sex offenders, including photos and addresses, are available online through sites such www.nsopr.gov.