Level 3 Sex Offender from Weymouth Arrested Again

WEYMOUTH, MA — A Level 3 sex offender who recently moved to Weymouth is back in police custody.

Richard Gardner was arrested Friday night on a fugitive from justice warrant, according to WHDH. He was taken into custody at a shelter on Southampton Street in South Boston.

The warrant was issued after Gardner violated the terms of his parole, but what he did to cause police to issue an arrest warrant remains unknown.

Residents in Weymouth have been on edge since it was announced that Gardner moved into his parents' home on Chandler Street. Since his return to the area, Gardner has been in the headlines. Saturday, he received a court summons after entering a library in Quincy, violating a city ordinance that forbids sex offenders from entering schools, libraries, or daycare centers unless given written permission by the school administration, library administration, or day care center owner.

This week, the Plymouth County District Attorney's office said that they didn't civilly commit Gardner in a mental institution due to human error. Prosecutors could have argued to civilly commit him due to his sex offender status. He also learned that he had to leave Weymouth because his probation officer moved to the Suffolk County courts.

In 1989, Gardner was convicted of rape of a child with force, indecent assault and battery on a child 14 or younger, and rape and abuse of a child. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In Rhode Island, he was sentenced to 190 years in prison for indecent assault and battery on a child 14 or younger again, but received a shorter sentence in 1993 upon appeal.

Image via Mass. Sex Offender Registry