William M. Deitz

PPPutnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith reports that a registered sex offender has been arrested for failing to notify authorities of his whereabouts as required by law.

Mr. William M. Deitz, aged 67, was arrested on Wednesday, May 10th, after he was reportedly found residing in an apartment on U.S.Route 6 in Southeast. Mr. Deitz, who is designated a “level 3” (“high risk”) sex offender, had last reported that he lived at the Budget Motor Inn on Route 6 in Mahopac.

It is alleged that Mr. Deitz moved out of the motel in Mahopac in March of this year and failed to notify authorities, as is required under the provisions of the New York State Sex Offender Registration Act, commonly referred to as “Meghan’s Law”. The law requires registered sex offenders to report an address change to the State Sex Offender Registry or to a local law enforcement agency within ten days. The failure to report an address change is a class E felony.

Sheriff’s Investigator Jeffrey Devolve made a random status check on Mr. Deitz at the Mahopac motel in April and ascertained that he had moved out of the motel without reporting the move. The investigator traced Mr. Deitz to the Southeast apartment–where he was reportedly living with a female acquaintance–and arrested him there.

The defendant was arraigned before Town Justice Thomas Jacobellis in the Town of Carmel Justice Court and was remanded to the Putnam County Correctional Facility in lieu of $10,000 cash bail or $20,000.00 bail bond. He remains held in the jail as of the time of this News Release and is scheduled to return to the court to answer the charge on May 17th. If convicted on the charge, the defendant could face up to four years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000.00.

This is the second time Mr. Deitz has been charged with failing to report an address change within approximately the last year. The Sheriff’s Office arrested him in April 2015 for moving from an address in the Town of Southeast to another residence in that Town without reporting it. He served about eight months in jail on that charge and was released from custody in December 2015.

Mr. Deitz became a registered sex offender based upon his 1983 conviction for felony sexual assault offenses in New Jersey. Those crimes reportedly involved four female victims ranging in age from eleven years old to thirteen years old. A mugshot of the defendant accompanies this News Release.