High-risk sex offender moves into Torrance, moves out, maybe is staying
A high-risk sex offender who was the subject of a Torrance police warning to the public has already
checked out of his Hawthorne Boulevard motel and moved on.
Police issued the warning about Bryan Eugene Thompson on Thursday evening after he registered with the Police Department when he moved into the Del Amo Inn, 20534 Hawthorne Blvd.
The Megan's Law Web site and a Torrance police report listed the 59-year-old man as a high-risk sex offender who had served a sentence for forcible rape and oral copulation.
Thompson, who was convicted in Orange County in 1969, served in prison until 1980. He was sent back to prison a few years later for a robbery and was in an out of prison on parole violations until he was officially discharged in 1990.
Torrance police Sgt. Bernard Anderson said the department issued the warning about Thompson to the media and to local Neighborhood Watch groups in an effort "to get the word out to the public so they can protect themselves."
But Friday, a clerk who answered the telephone at the motel said Thompson had checked out.
Anderson confirmed that Thompson checked out about 11:30 a.m.
The rest of this confuses me. State Department of Corrections spokesman Gordon Hinkle said Thompson did his time and no longer is under the jurisdiction of the state. He can come and go as he pleases.
So when he registered, he was complying with state law.
Torrance police, however, said he was under the jurisdiction of the parole department and left the motel with his sister because he did not like the living arrangement at the motel. They were going to move him from one room to another each day instead of giving him a room to call his own.
Later today he is supposed to register as a "transient" with the Torrance Police Department and must check in every 30 days. Next week, Thompson is supposed to begin wearing a monitoring band.
Anyway, there's his photo.
By the way, my research on the Megan's Law site shows four other registered sex offenders listed as residents of the Del Amo Inn.
The Torrance police statement and the crime bulletin follows.
What the Torrance release said:
The individual who appears in the attached bulletin, Bryan Eugene Thompson, has been classified and is registered with the Department of Justice as a High Risk sex offender. The individual has been convicted of specific sex offenses that allow for public disclosure. California Penal Code Section 290, more commonly known as "Megan's Law", permits law enforcement agencies to notify the public when sex offenders who have been classified as Serious or High Risk of recidivism reside in a community. This individual is NOT WANTED by the Torrance Police Department at this time. The purpose of this release of information is to allow members of the public to protect themselves and their children from sex offenders.
About the Blogger
Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
E-mail Larry at larry.altman@dailybreeze.com.
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