Former Vancouver man sentenced to year in prison for failing to register as sex offender

A former Vancouver man was sentenced to a year in federal prison Thursday for failing to comply with his sex offender supervision and registration requirements.

A federal judge also imposed five years of supervised release in the case against 50-year-old Joseph Alonzo Lugo, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Oregon news release.

As a condition of his post-prison supervision, Lugo will be required to undergo sex offender treatment and mental health counseling, the news release says.

Lugo was required to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty in a state case in August 2017 to communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and, less than a year later, pleading guilty to second-degree child molestation.

In the latter case, Lugo sexually abused a child known to him, who was younger than 5. He served 11 months in prison. He was released in September 2019 and stopped registering as a sex offender in several months’ time, prosecutors said.

Lugo absconded from Washington supervision and took up residence in Eugene, Ore., at the end of 2019. U.S. Marshals Service deputies began investigating his whereabouts and located him at a house in Eugene in April.

“The deputies’ investigation revealed that Lugo had interacted with several children at the house while in nonregistration status, though the investigation revealed no evidence of additional sexual offenses,” prosecutors said.