Registered sex offender arrested for violating playground restrictions

Carey Holbrook, Richmond Register, Ky.
·2 min read

Sep. 20—Carey Holbrook

BEREA — On Sept. 18, the Berea Police Department (BPD) received a complaint a possible registered sex offender was loitering near a playground at the Spoonbread Festival this past weekend.

Eric Batchelor, of Berea, was arrested after violating restrictions pertaining to conditions of his registry on the sex offender list after being in close vicinity to Memorial Park and a children's daycare facility.

According to the arrest citation, when BPD arrived on the scene, officers identified Batchelor as a registered sex offender through LINK/NCIC database. Officers then located him near a playground where children were actively playing.

Batchelor alleged the map his wife had given him 'didn't say anything about a park,' in a statement to BPD.

The responding officers obtained the same map Batchelor had on hand and the one he had been referring to, according to police records.

The officers advised Batchelor of his location in correlation to the playground and where his booth was set up at the festival.

Batchelor informed them his vehicle was parked in the vendor parking location — the vendor location mentioned was adjacent to Memorial Park as well as directly behind a daycare.

It is noted in the police documentation the vicinities that Batchelor was around, both the booth and parking locations, were clearly illustrated and labelled on the map provided to vendors.

Additionally, all parks on the map were clearly labeled in correlation to where each of the numbered booths were located. Batchelor was at booth 57 and was arrested and transported to Madison County Detention Center without incident.

Batchelor landed a lifetime status on the US Department of Justice's national sex offender registry after convictions with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, in two counties. The victim was 14-years-old at the time of the incidents, according to arrest records.

The Register collects and publishes police reports as a public service to its readers. The reports often contain allegations against individuals and do not mean the individuals and does not mean that individuals committed a crime. All people named in connection with a crime are presumed innocent until guilty in a court of law.