Convicted Sex Offender Sentenced for Failure to Register

A convicted sex offender was sentenced earlier this month to two years for failure to register with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office.

James William Bodenstedt, 44, was released from the South Carolina Department of Corrections in early 2011 after serving a sentence for a 2006 property crime, according to a statement from the Pickens County Sheriff's Office.

Bodenstedt was previously convicted for a sexual battery crime in Florida in 1987 and child molestation in Georgia in 1992.

Following his release in 2011, officials said Bodenstedt refused to provide SCDC personnel with an address where he would be living. Bodenstedt was then assigned the address for the Pickens County Detention Center where he was previously held, according to the statment.

Officials said Bodenstedt "was provided with the proper forms regarding his registration requirements, and was advised by a captain with SCDC that he must register as a sex offender with the Sheriff of Pickens County," according to the statement.

Following his release from prison, officials said they were able to trace him to Richmond, Virginia. The Pickens County Sheriff's Office secured a warrant for Bodenstedt's failure to register his address. Deputies discovered Bodenstedt had been working at a mall in Alexandria, VA and contacted the Virginia State Police and U.S. Marshal’s Service to coordinate his capture.

Because of Bodenstedt’s prior convictions the U.S. Marshal’s Service adopted the case in June 2011 for federal prosecution under the Adam Walsh Act. Bodenstedt was arrested in Alexandria, where he awaited trial on the federal charges.

On February 3, 2012, Bodenstedt was sentenced to two years in federal prison, to be followed by fifteen years of federal supervision. Under South Carolina law, Bodenstedt is required to register, for the rest of his life, with the sheriff of the county in which he resides.