Blackford County sex offender again accused of failing to register
HARTFORD CITY, Ind. — For at least the fourth time, a sex offender from Blackford County has been accused of failing to keep authorities updated on his whereabouts.
Darin Scott Maddox, 39, was charged this month in Blackford Superior Court with failure to register as a sex or violent offender, a Level 5 felony carrying up to six years in prison.
Maddox was convicted of sexual battery, in Blackford Circuit Court, in August 2006. As a result of that conviction, he is required to register with authorities in the communities where he lives and works.
On May 4, a Blackford County sheriff's deputy was verifying the addresses of local sex offenders, and learned that Maddox now longer lived at the address he had most recently registered at, in the 1800 block of South Blackford County Road 100-W.
A person at that address reported Maddox had been "kicked out" after a disagreement with the property's owner about two weeks earlier, and had indicated he was moving to Ohio.
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Maddox, arrested in mid-May, was being held in the Blackford County jail on Tuesday under a bond of $3,510. A trial date had not yet been set in the case.
The Hartford City man was convicted of failing to register as a sex or violent offender in 2020, 2016 and 2012.
The most recent conviction stemmed in part from Maddox's failure to inform the sheriff's department he was no longer employed at a local restaurant.
An affidavit said Maddox lost that job after his employers determined he had denied being a convicted sex offender on a job application.
The Blackford County man's criminal record also includes a 2008 conviction for robbery.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Blackford County sex offender again accused of failing to register
