Charles City man sent to federal prison for failure to register as a sex offender

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A man who recently listed his address as Charles City has been sentenced to federal prison for 16 months for failure to register in Iowa as a sexual offender.

Charles Robert Gregory III, age 50, who previously lived in New Hampton and prior to that in Illinois, was sentenced last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

He had been indicted for failure to register in November 2020, after his status became known following an arrest for driving while intoxicated, second offense, in October 2019 in Bremer County. He had begun working and living in Iowa in May 2018.

Gregory is required to register as a sex offender for life and keep his residence information current because he was convicted of multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault in 1990, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was also convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in Illinois state court in 2000.

Gregory pleaded guilty to the state OWI charge in June 2020 and was sentenced to up to two years in prison and ordered to enter an Iowa OWI prison program, which allows people to serve their sentence while participating in treatment in community corrections facilities instead of prison.

Gregory pleaded guilty to the federal failure to register charge in January this year. Presentencing investigations and various court actions regarding whether he should remain in federal custody continued through the summer, until he was finally sentenced last Thursday in the federal court in Cedar Rapids.

In addition to Gregory’s sentence of 16 months in federal prison, he will serve three years of supervised release after prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

As of last Friday, Gregory was being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.