Idaho man living at unreported addresses
A child rapist classified as a violent sexual predator in Idaho is headed back to prison.
Joshua R. Bradley pleaded guilty Thursday to failing to register as a sex offender twice in as many months. In one instance, the Rathdrum man was found living with his girlfriend in Post Falls and baby-sitting the woman’s toddler.
After being released from jail and awaiting sentencing on that charge, Bradley was caught not living at his registered address. When sheriff’s deputies showed up to arrest him, they found him hiding on a roof.
The 27-year-old is among the minority of registered sex offenders in Idaho classified as violent sexual predators – those considered most likely to offend again.
Along with guilty pleas to two felonies for failing to register, Bradley pleaded guilty Thursday to being a persistent offender. His criminal record includes felony convictions for burglary and forgery, along with previously failing to register as a sex offender in Washington, where he was convicted in 1996 of raping a child in Kitsap County. Bradley was 15 when he raped an 8-year-old. His girlfriend, Robin Hieronymus, testified Thursday that she trusted Bradley with her 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son and never suspected him of sexually touching either child.
Hieronymus said Bradley initially told her he had to register as a sex offender because he was caught having sex with a girlfriend when he was 14. She said she heard several stories from Bradley before he admitted to her that he’d raped a child.
Both of Hieronymus’ children were in court Thursday as Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Jim Reierson read excerpts from a presentence investigation recounting how Bradley raped the 8-year-old and admitted in counseling to molestations and rapes involving 17 others as young as age 5.
Reierson asked 1st District Judge Fred Gibler to sentence Bradley to as many as 25 years in prison and noted that Bradley told deputies he planned to live somewhere other than where he was registered because “he no longer wanted to be exploited.”
Gibler sentenced Bradley to up to 10 years in prison, saying it was “troublesome” that it wasn’t the first time Bradley failed to register. He will serve at least three years before he’s eligible for parole.
“When I have ‘sentence pending’ for one failure to register and the defendant goes out and gets another one, that shows me the defendant is not serious about the requirements of the law,” Gibler said.