DULUTH -- A Level 3 registered predatory sex offender who had sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl he met through a popular Internet site has been released from custody and will be living on the same block as several child-care centers, the Duluth Police Department announced.
Police have notified child cares in the area where Shaun Michael Roethlisberger, 24, will be living, the 2700 block of West Third Street. He has a history of sexual contact with female victims ages 5 to 14. The victims knew Roethlisberger.
Until 1997, police couldn't tell anyone a sex offender had been released into the community. The offender had an unrestricted right to privacy after serving a sentence and police could not interfere.
Under a 1997 Minnesota law, police can alert a sex offender's victim, family, local schools and child-care centers or the entire community if the offender is considered a high enough risk.
The law was created to allow the community to be more vigilant and wasn't intended to mark the offender for persecution or other abuse.
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Level 3 sex offenders are generally considered the most likely to reoffend for reasons including the severity and nature of their past crimes and refusal to participate in treatment programs.
Roethlisberger pleaded guilty in 2006 to having intercourse with a 14-year-old girl he met through a popular Internet site. Then-Duluth Police Chief Roger Waller called a news conference after Roethlisberger's arrest in June 2006 to remind parents of the potential dangers young people face on the Internet.
Police said that Roethlisberger met the girl on the Internet site Myspace.com. The girl told police that after she and Roethlisberger communicated online they talked on the telephone about having sexual relations. They met near the Miller Hill Mall and went to his house at 612 N. 60th Ave. W. and had sex.
Roethlisberger is on supervised release with Arrowhead Regional Corrections until September 2018. Conditions of his release include:
* No direct or indirect contact with minors without prior supervising agent approval.
* He must not live in an apartment building or other residential building where children are present without prior supervising agent approval.
* He must not own or operate any device that allows for Internet access.
* He must not purchase, possess or allow in his residence any sexually explicit material.
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* He must not purchase or operate a motor vehicle without prior supervising agent approval.
* He must successfully complete sex offender programming as directed by supervising agent.
Anyone who knows of Roethlisberger violating any of the conditions is asked to contact the Duluth Police Department's Family Crimes Unit at 730-5070 or his supervising agent Kathleen Sieh at 733-2808.
The Duluth News Tribune and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers,
