SULTAN — A convicted sex offender living near Sultan has been denied his request to move to San Juan County.
The state corrections department Wednesday announced that David F. Stewart, 58, would not be allowed to move. His hopes to relocate to San Juan County had stirred up controversy in Friday Harbor there.
Stewart got out of prison last month after serving a seven-year sentence for rape of a child. He is under community supervision by the corrections department’s Everett office.
In most cases, state law requires offenders to be released from prison to the same county where they were convicted of the felony that sent them to prison. Stewart’s conviction was in Snohomish County, but his wife now lives in Friday Harbor.
She wrote a letter to her local newspaper last week asking people to forgive her husband and let him move there. In the letter, she accused the corrections department of trumping up her husband’s offender classification to alarm people.
The corrections department said it looked at her home and decided it would be better for the public if Stewart remained in Snohomish County.
Among other factors, he would have better access to treatment and would be further away from some of his victims, corrections officials said.
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