Sex Offender Sent Back Behind Bars Conditions Of Probation Repeatedly Violated, Court Records Show

About 600 St. Maries residents signed a petition to put a convicted sex offender back behind bars after he repeatedly violated the conditions of his probation.

Their request was granted Friday when 1st District Judge Craig Kosonen ordered Edward J. Adams Jr., 36, to spend three years behind bars.

“We as a community don’t want him out,” said Pat Wernecke, the woman who started the signature drive. “Anybody that can do that to a little 4-year-old girl - he’s sick.”

Adams admitted molesting a 4-year-old girl in November 1993. In April 1995, he pleaded guilty to lewd conduct with a minor and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

However, Adams was released after spending only 180 days in the Cottonwood sex offender evaluation program.

As part of his probation, Adams was ordered - among other things - to attend sex offender counseling, report to a probation officer and not to get intimately involved with a person who has a minor child.

According to court records, Adams repeatedly violatd his probation requirements from October to December by failing to show up for counseling and failing to report to his probation officer.

He also began dating a woman with a 9-year-old daughter, Prosecutor Rich Christensen told Judge Kosonen Friday.

After a meeting at the probation and parole office, a probation officer watched Adams walk over to a nearby building and meet with the woman he’d been warned to stay away from, according to court records.

When the probation officer called to Adams to come back to the office, the couple ran and hid behind some bushes. When Adams finally came back to where his probation officer was, he denied contacting the woman - even though he had her keys with him, according to court records.

“Mr. Adams’ poor choices and impulsive behavior make him a risk to reoffend and also places the community at risk,” Ramona M. Slover, Adams’ probation officer, wrote in a report to the judge.

Adams was arrested three different times for violating his probation. Two of those times he was able to bail out of jail, pending his court hearing, and commit more probation violations, according to court records.

“They’d take him in and tell him not to do it again and then he’d turn around and be right back out there doing it again,” said the uncle of the victim, who asked that his name not be used.

“Every time I picked up the paper, he had violated his parole and he was out - I flipped out,” said Wernecke, who works at the local Apple Tree Cafe. “I got a petition up and I got 600 signatures and I got them in four hours.”

The uncle said he was pleased to see such community support to keep Adams behind bars.

“I’m glad the judge could stand behind the community’s decision,” the uncle said.

He said the girl has been making a good recovery from the abuse. “She is just doing so much better now,” her uncle said.

At Friday’s hearing, Kosonen ordered Adams to serve his original 15-year prison sentence. However, the judge also ordered that Adams be eligible for probation after three years and receive credit for 910 days of time he already served.

That means Adams will be eligible for parole in 185 days.

, DataTimes