State Police Capture 4th Suspect from Sex Offender List

The Massachusetts State Police (MSP) report a fourth member of the MSP Ten Most Wanted Sex Offender List was captured Feb. 9 after Massachusetts troopers directed Florida police to the suspect’s location.

Officers from Florida’s Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested Robert H. Griggs, Jr., 51, at the Green Wave Motel on Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers. Sheriff’s deputies were directed to the location after Trooper Steve McDonald of the MSP Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section developed information that Griggs may be staying at a motel on or near Palm Beach Boulevard.

Griggs, who is classified as a high risk Level 3 offender by the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, is wanted by the Fitchburg Police Department for failure to register as a sex offender as required by law. He was required to register because of a 1994 conviction in Massachusetts for open and gross misconduct and lewd and lascivious behavior and a 1995 conviction in Texas for aggravated sexual assault on a child.

Griggs was booked at the Lee County jail and will be held pending his rendition to Worcester County to answer to the failure to register warrant.

Griggs is the fourth member of the Top Ten Most Wanted Sex Offender List to be captured since the list was updated by State Police and the Sex Offender Registry Board last week. Last week, Level 3 offenders Caesar J. Delgado, Steven M. Hescock, and Franklin C. Miller were captured.

All members of the list of Most Wanted Sex Offenders have been classified as Level 3 sex offenders by the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board. The remaining members of the list being sought by State Police are:

•  MICHAEL V. MARTINEZ, 38, previously convicted of rape and abuse of a child and failure to register as a sex offender and currently wanted by the Lawrence Police Department for failure to register as a sex offender;
• SAMUEL HARPER JR., 46, previously convicted for multiple counts of both rape of a child with force and assault to rape and currently wanted by the MSP for failure to register as a sex offender;
• ELWOOD J. JOHNSON, 54, previously convicted in Washington state for rape of a child and currently wanted by the Worcester Police Department for failure to register as a sex offender;
• STEVEN MICHAEL COOPER, 43, previously convicted in Georgia of rape and currently wanted by the Springfield Police Department for failure to register as a sex offender and rape;
• CARLOS I. BELTRAN, 44, previously convicted of indecent assault and battery and currently wanted by the Haverhill Police Department indecent assault and battery, failure to register as a sex offender, and violation of an abuse prevention order; and
• MICHAEL O. KELLY, 34, previously convicted in Massachusetts of indecent assault and battery on a child and in New Jersey of failure to register as a sex offender and currently wanted by the Boston Police Department for indecent assault and battery on a child and failure to register as a sex offender.

Wanted posters for all of the state’s Most Wanted Sex Offenders can be viewed at www.mass.gov/msp/wanted/sexoffenders/wanted-sexoffenders.htm. Anyone with information about the location of the Most Wanted Sex Offenders is asked to call Massachusetts State Police at (508) 820-2121 or 1-800-KAPTURE (1-800-527-8873).