News and Information

Alleged Sex Offender Arrested In Pasco
By CHRIS CHMURA, cchmura@tbo.com

September 23, 2005 – NEW PORT RICHEY - Pasco deputies have arrested a man for failing to register as a sex offender after he visited a school Thursday.

Pasco sheriff officials initially said the arrest was the first in the county that applied the Jessica Lundsford Act. But officials later corrected themselves, saying the act applies to vendors and employees of a school district, but not to visitors. The suspect arrested Thursday was visiting the school.

David Rutherford, 26, of Port Richey, was jailed Thursday when he visited Seven Springs Elementary School to drop off a lunchbox for his girlfirend's son.

School administrators called deputies after scanning Rutherford's ID though a system that discovered he had been a sexual predator in Illinois. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office determined Rutherford had not properly registered his whereabouts with the state of Florida.