Sex offender faces additional 21 felonies for registration violations, Highlands sheriff says
Jorge F. Paz, mugshot from March 18; arrest photo and mugshot from March 29 (Highlands County SO)
SEBRING, Fla. - The Special Victims Unit of the Highlands County Sheriff's Office wants sex offenders to know it takes proper registration seriously.
Deputies said registered sex offender Jorge Francisco Paz was warned, but appears not to have taken it seriously.
Back on March 18, Paz's smiling mugshot was posted on the sheriff's office's Facebook page. He was arrested for registration violations related to his 1994 conviction for lewd and lascivious assault of a child.
The post says Paz told deputies he lived in Miami-Dade County "for years…without having issues" for not registering as a sex offender "in a timely manner."
"We told him that's not how we do things here in Highlands County. Here, if you don't follow the rules, you go to jail. He apparently thought we were bluffing. We were not," the sheriff's office said.
Paz was arrested for violating sex offender registration rules.
Paz mugshot, March 18
Ten days later, the sheriff's office issued another Facebook post, announcing Paz was arrested again and now faces 21 additional felonies.
"We introduced everyone to sex offender Jorge Francisco Paz a little while ago. You may remember his smiling mugshot when he was arrested for four registration violations just days after moving to our county," the sheriff's office said in a March 29 post.
After his initial arrest, the sheriff's office said it discovered additional violations and deputies paid Paz another visit.
The sheriff's office posted another photo of Paz smiling, this time in the back of a patrol vehicle, apparently in handcuffs. However, Paz was not smiling in his latest mugshot.
On Facebook, the sheriff's office said, "The Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit closely monitors the sexual offenders and predators in our county, and we are dead serious when we say that any sex offender or predator who does not comply with their registration requirements will go to jail. If you don't want to follow the rules, you probably want to find another place to live."
The sheriff's office added that not all arrests result in convictions and everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty in court.