Update: Convicted sex offender arrested after mailbox crash
Updated: This story has been updated with new information.
Columbus police say a local man is in jail after crashing into a mailbox, then fleeing the scene of the accident. But he is now also facing charges for violating requirements of the sex offender registry.
Columbus police say they have been investigating complaints from the public about 31-year-old Michael O. Kent. Officers recently submitted their findings to the Bartholomew County Prosecutors Office, which led to warrants being issued for Kents arrest on felony charges of failure to register as a sex offender and a sex offender residency offense.
Kent was already in the Bartholomew County Jail, after being arrested on a charge of leaving the scene of a property damage accident for allegedly crashing into a business mailbox in the 2400 block of West Jonathan Moore Pike. Police said the incident happened just after midnight Monday morning and they arrested Kent after a review of security footage.
After being arrested, Kent is being held without bond. Police say Kent’s bond was revoked for a May incident where he was arrested in for trespassing at a downtown Columbus business.
Kent is a registered sex offender, convicted in May of 2009 of second degree rape in Maryland. He is listed as homeless and unemployed in the registry maintained by the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.
Over the past three years in Columbus he has been arrested for trespassing multiple times, and accused of more serious crimes including theft, resisting law enforcement, battery with bodily injury, probation violations and trafficking with an inmate.