April 5, 2021
The Levy County Sheriff’s Office launched operation
Benchmark in February 2021 which was created to identify sex offenders and
sexual predators in Levy County who were not complying with state offender
registration requirements. Sex offenders and sexual predators are required by
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, after being convicted of any
sexually based crime, to register with their local sheriff’s office.
Registration requirements include notifying law enforcement of address changes,
providing information on the vehicles they drive, electronic addresses,
employment locations and planned travel arrangements.
Detectives in the Criminal Investigations Division spent
hours reviewing the files of the 201 registered sex offenders and sexual
predators in Levy County. This was followed by countless hours of investigation
into those offenders who did not have their records up to date. Some tips
related to suspicious activity of registered sex offenders came directly from
our public and detectives looked into each complaint.
Operation Benchmark was concluded this past week and netted
seven (7) arrests which included a variety of registration requirement
failures. One additional case is still outstanding and detectives have filed an
application for an arrest warrant on this individual. The following individuals
have been taken into custody and are awaiting trial:
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Deonte Washington
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Fredrick Carpenter
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Gary Thunquest
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Jeffrey Lashley
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Joel Ramirez
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Renee Mangini
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Todd Thompson
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