Mugshot of Dustin Bue Messerly. Photo Credit: THE V.I. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
The V.I. Dept. of Justice has announced that that 41-year-old Dustin Bue Messerly, a registered sex offender, was arrested by V.I. D.O.J. special agents and the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) unit on St. Thomas Tuesday.
Messerly was arrested for failure to comply with registration requirements for sex offenders in the Virgin Islands, said the justice department. Investigators and the SORNA unit were alerted that Messerly resides and is employed in the V.I. with an unknown address. His criminal charges are sexual exploitation of a minor and voyeurism by electronic equipment concealed or disguised. He was convicted for both charges in the state of Utah in 2012, according to the V.I. D.O.J.
Messerly has failed to register and notify the local justice department that he relocated to St. Thomas and is employed here, in violation of the sex offender registration laws. Pursuant to Chapter 86, Section 1722 of Title 14 of the V.I. Code, Messerly was required to register as a sex offender within three business days of arriving at a new location. The V.I. D.O.J. said it was informed anonymously that Messerly was employed on the island. Messerly was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers at the Cyril E. King Airport as he was preparing to board a flight, said the justice department. He was jailed pending his advisement hearing.
A registered sexual offender must notify the V.I. D.O.J. of his/her name, residence, temporary lodging information, vehicle information, Internet identifiers, telephone numbers, school information, and employment status, said the justice department. A team of special agents from the V.I. D.O.J. and the SORNA unit, with the assistance of U.S. Marshals and other local and federal agencies, routinely conduct unannounced inspections of registered sexual offenders to verify their locations and other personal information, such as their work and home addresses.
The V.I. Dept. of Justice is legally mandated to administer and enforce the sex offender registration laws. Registered sexual offenders in the territory are prosecuted by the attorney general for either failing to register or not keeping their registration current, as required by this law. If convicted, the penalty is a fine of not less than $3,000 nor more than $5,000, or imprisonment for not less than three months nor more than two years, or both. The law also provides that it is an offense to assist a sex offender to evade the registration requirements, which carries a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $2,000 or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.
The sex offender registry is available for public view at https://usvi.nsopw.gov.
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