Offender

The Washington County Sheriff's Department was looking for a registered child sex offender who failed to notify them of an address change. Anyone with information about Richard Joseph Evans Jr., 55, may contact the sheriff's department at 301-791-3020. Evans is white, with gray hair and hazel eyes. He is 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 180 pounds, according to the sheriff's department.

HAGERSTOWN -- Barbara and Robert Shipley were downtown Monday afternoon when they came across the annual Defend Life Face the Truth Tour and asked organizers if they could join in the anti-abortion demonstration. Barbara Shipley referred to abortion as "ghastly. " Her son, Robert Shipley, said they believe abortion is murder. Angela Swagler, 19, of Erie, Pa., is one of the tour's organizers. The group of 23 tour members made its first stop Monday morning in Charles Town, W.Va.

BOONSBORO -- The pastor of Benevola United Methodist Church in Boonsboro has been suspended from her position for not fully disclosing her husband's status as a registered child sex offender, a church superintendent said Wednesday. David Alvin Smith, 57, the husband of the Rev. Helen Smith, pleaded guilty in 2008 to a third-degree sex offense charge after his adult daughter told authorities he had sexually abused her as a child. As details about his conviction came to light in media reports this spring, a congregation member alleged the information differed from what the Rev. Smith had told her congregation about the matter and alerted church supervisors, said John Rudisill, superintendent of the Cumberland-Hagerstown District of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Franklin County Jail officials are looking for nonprofit organizations, government entities and churches interested in using driving under the influence offenders for community service projects. The county recently started a "weekender program" in which DUI offenders can serve incarceration sentences on weekends, allowing them to work during the week. Part of that involves a commitment to community service. Offenders need to "pay back" the negative effects they cause in a community, Warden John Wetzel said in a news release.

ANNAPOLIS -- Elizabeth Gilchrest's father began sexually abusing her when she was just 5 years old. The abuse continued until she was 12, and now at 25 years old, Gilchrest says she wants to help warn others about the crimes committed by her father, a Sharpsburg resident. Gilchrest, a graduate of Boonsboro High School who now lives in Hawaii, was in Annapolis Tuesday to testify in favor of a bill that would correct a law that allows sex offenders like her father to avoid registering as such.

The Hagerstown Police Department reported the following juvenile arrests: Dec. 8 o Conspiracy to commit armed robbery, 85 Eastern Boulevard North, one female offender. Dec. 15 o 2:30 p.m., weapons violation, South Hagerstown High School, 1101 S. Potomac St., one female offender. Dec. 17 o 11:45 a.m., weapons violation, North Hagerstown High School, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., one male offender. Dec. 21 o 11:30 a.m., second-degree sexual assault, North Hagerstown High School, one male offender.

HAGERSTOWN -- About 50 registered sexual offenders in Washington County are required to attend a four-hour meeting Halloween night at an undisclosed location. During the meeting, offenders will be able to ask questions about state law, and agents from the Division of Parole and Probation will review sex offender laws and conditions of supervision, a Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman said. Photographs of the offenders will be taken during the meeting, department spokesman Mark Vernarelli said.

About 50 registered sexual offenders in Washington County are required to attend a four-hour meeting Halloween night at an undisclosed location. During the meeting, offenders will be able to ask questions about state law, and agents from the Division of Parole and Probation will review sex offender laws and conditions of supervision, a Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman said. Photographs of the offenders will be taken during the meeting, department spokesman Mark Vernarelli said.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Court representatives working with juveniles who have committed sexual offenses have an option to send them to a treatment program before they are released back to society, the Franklin County (Pa.) Criminal Justice Advisory Board was told Thursday. Dr. Vito DonGiovanni spoke on behalf of the Sexual Responsibility and Treatment Program at Torrance State Hospital, 45 miles east of Pittsburgh. Specific timelines must be met for entrance into the program, which came about under Pennsylvania's Act 21 of 2003, DonGiovanni said.

ANNAPOLIS - Worried that a teacher who sexually abused her 25 years ago will escape a sex offender registry, a Washington County woman urged lawmakers to eliminate a legal loophole. The woman testified Tuesday in the House Judiciary Committee, pushing for passage of a bill for certain sex offenders to register for a database. Del. Christopher B. Shank, R-Washington, the bill's sponsor, said it only applies to offenders who committed crimes before Oct. 1, 1995, but who were convicted on or after that day. When the state's sex offender registry was created in 1995, it didn't include prior convictions.