Whitley County Sheriff’s deputies arrest Pennsylvania fugitive, sex offender

A Williamsburg man, who is a convicted sex offender and an out-of-state fugitive, waived extradition Monday morning back to the state of Pennsylvania, according to court documents.

Fred Hughes was charged with being a fugitive from Pennsylvania, and is accused of being a sex offender living in Whitley County without registering.

Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Lawson arrested Fred Eugene Hughes, 60, on Jan. 7 at a US25W residence, which was within 1,000 feet of Whitley County High School and Whitley County Intermediate School, according to an arrest citation.

Deputies charged Hughes with being a fugitive from another state, failure to comply with sex offender registration, registered sex offender residence restrictions, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

“Mr. Hughes is a convicted sexual offender and had moved to Kentucky in an attempt to avoid arrest,” a Whitley County Sheriff’s Department release stated.

Lawson and Sgt. Jonas Saunders went to the residence searching for Hughes after being contacted by the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Department, who informed them that Hughes was staying at the residence, which is about one-half a mile north of the Williamsburg city limits.

A check of the Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry revealed that Hughes had not registered on that website, Lawson wrote on an arrest citation.

Court documents don’t indicate what Hughes original sexual offense conviction was for, but Judge David R. Cashman signed an arrest warrant for Hughes arrest on Nov. 6, 2017, for violation of probation/parole.

The Pennsylvania Sex Offender Registry, which is maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police, indicates that Hughes was convicted on March 4, 1991, of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and that he first registered on Oct. 24, 2000.

When police went to the Williamsburg residence to arrest Hughes, there was allegedly a strong odor of marijuana on his person, and deputies located a medium size bag with a green leafy substance inside believed to be marijuana in addition to rolling papers, according to an arrest citation.

Hughes was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday morning in Whitley District Court on the sex offender, marijuana and drug paraphernalia charges.

Instead he waived his right to a preliminary hearing, and Judge Fred White forwarded the case onto the Whitley County Grand Jury. White ordered Hughes to report to Whitley Circuit Court on Feb. 17 to see whether the grand jury has issued an indictment in his case.

Hughes is being held in the Whitley County Detention Center in lieu of a $7,500 cash bond on these charges, according to court documents. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“Our department makes daily visits to Whitley County school campuses on all three shifts for instances such as this. We also patrol area neighborhoods that are within close proximity to our schools to become familiar the residents and the behaviors that surround our schools. It is a priority of our department to ensure school campus safety,” Whitley County Sheriff Todd Shelley wrote in a release.