Operation Running Wild led to 17 arrests in North Florida.
The four-day law enforcement operation targeted registrants residing within Columbia County in Florida to confirm compliance with state registration laws.
Inspectors, agents and analysts with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) joined the Columbia County Sheriff’s (CCSO), the Lake City Police Department (LCPD), the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) and the State Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial Circuit in the arrests of 17 sexual offenders and sexual predators for violations of Florida law.
During the operation, contact was made with 264 suspects in Columbia County. Members of FDLE’s Enforcement and Investigative Support Bureau (EIS) and the FDLE Live Oak Field Office, together with the CCSO and LCPD, conducted verification interviews for each registrant.
The investigation led to 17 suspects being apprehended, including 13 sexual offenders and four sexual predators. Those arrested in Operation Running Wild included:
50-year-old Burley Kirkland, sexual predator
56-year-old Kenneth Brian Curry, sexual predator
42-year-old Geoffrey Paul Olin, sexual predator
46-year-old Jason Gregory Oliver, sexual predator
41-year-old Clinton Lee Bond, sexual offender
53-year-old David Lopez Rios, sexual offender
53-year-old Alvin Deshon Davis, sexual offender
55-year-old Eugene Scott Viola, sexual offender
53-year-old James Eric Cauthon, sexual offender
66-year-old Lawrence Hassebroek, sexual offender
41-year-old William James Rouse, sexual offender
48-year-old Kenneth Aubrey Hunter, sexual offender
43-year-old Richard Johnathan Simmons, sexual offender
73-year-old Vincent Sperando Jr., sexual offender
62-year-old Steve Ellis Sawyer, sexual offender
46-year-old Randy Rober Stokes, sexual offender
42-year-old Paul Calvin Gunter, sexual offender
Seventeen suspects face various charges including failure to report changes in residence, vehicles, e-mail addresses, employment and Internet Identifiers. Additionally, 63-year-old David Alan Schwab, sexual offender, was arrested on an Outagamie County, Wisconsin arrest warrant.
Additionally, investigators identified eight subjects who absconded from their registered address.
All suspects were booked into the Columbia County Jail.
The North Florida cases are being prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial Circuit.
FDLE’s Missing Persons and Offender Enforcement Division, including analysts from the Offender Registry Services Bureau, partners with sheriff’s offices, police departments and federal law enforcement across Florida to verify compliance with Florida’s registration laws requiring sex offenders and predators to report to their local sheriff’s office and provide information including residential addresses, telephone numbers, vehicle information, internet identifiers, photograph, passport and conviction information.
