Convicted Sex Predator Accused of Failing to Register for Third Time

Photo: Jeffrey Wright, 50, whose last known address is in Justice, was charged with failure to register as a sex offender. | Illinois Sex Offender Registry

A convicted sexual predator was arrested on charges that he did not keep his state sex offender registration current.

Jeffrey Wright, 50, whose last known address is in Justice, appeared before Cook County Judge Peter Felice on a charge of failure to register during a bond hearing on Wednesday.

According to the charges, Justice police went to Wright’s last known address in the 8800 block of West 83rd Street and learned that he no longer lived in the building. Police went to the homes of Wright’s ex-wife and stepson, who told police that Wright did not reside at those addresses.

Prosecutors said that police went to the 8800 block of South Harlem Avenue at the suggestion of Wright’s stepson, but were not able to find him.

Around 5 p.m. Sept. 1, police received information that Wright had been dropped off by a cab at 79th Street and Cicero Avenue, where he was waiting for a Pace bus to take him to the CTA Orange line, prosecutors alleged.

Justice police contacted Burbank police, who found Wright at 76th Street and Cicero Avenue, where he was taken into custody. Wright allegedly told detectives that he he had been in and out of hospitals the past month and was homeless.

The assistant public defender told the judge that Wright, who sat in a chair throughout the court hearing, was struggling with health issues, and had most recently suffered from a heart attack and stroke.

“He can’t be struggling that much,” Judge Felice said. “He can get in a cab and on the bus.”

Prosecutors said that this was Wright’s third arrest for failure to register with the Illinois Sex Offender Registry.

He served two years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for failure to register in 2006, and received probation for the same offense the year in 2005.

According to state records, Wright was convicted on two counts of aggravated sex abuse in 2000, for which he received a four-year prison sentence. Wright was 42 years old at the time of the offense, his victim was 35.

He is classified as a sexual predator.

Judge Felice set bail at $100,000. Wright is due back in court at Bridgeview on Sept. 23.