A man who was convicted and served time in prison for sexual battery has been charged with two counts of failure to register as a sex offender. He’s in the Greene County Jail.

Jacob Lee Farnsworth, 23, of Jasonville, was convicted of felony sexual battery in Clay County on July 18, 2013. He was sentenced, served time and got out, but has been repeatedly in trouble for failure to register.

Farnsworth is required to register on the Sex and Violent Offenders List for ten years.

Farnsworth was convicted of failure to register in Greene County in June of 2014. He was convicted of failure to register in Greene County again in July of 2016.

Most recently, Farnsworth has been in jail in Starke County and on October 2, he was convicted there of failure to register. Court records indicate he still has a sentence to serve there.

After his sentencing in Starke County on October 2, Farnsworth was transferred on October 3 to the Greene County Jail to face charges here.

Farnsworth was registered as living in Jasonville but in late November of 2017, Greene County’s Sex and Violent Offender Registrar Temperance Harris learned that Farnsworth had been kicked out of his last known residence on Meridian Street. Farnsworth did not notify her of a change in his address and Greene County Sheriff’s Deputy Harvey Holt was asked to investigate Farnsworth’s whereabouts.

Over the course of several days, Deputy Holt checked Farnsworth’s last known residence then followed leads to several other residences and he talked to numerous individuals including friends and family members.

Deputy Holt learned Farnsworth had moved, but he heard different stories about what day he moved and where he moved to, then was told he might have moved out of the county.

Eventually, Holt reported that he was unable to locate Farnsworth, Farnsworth did not have a current phone number and that Farnsworth may have left the county with a girlfriend. Holt checked records and Farnsworth had not registered in any other location nationwide.

In December, Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw filed a criminal case against Farnsworth and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Then Farnsworth ended up in jail in Starke County.

Since Farnsworth has now been returned to Greene County, he has been charged with failure to register as a sex or violent offender with a prior conviction for failure to register – a Level 5 felony, and failure to register as a sex or violent offender – a Level 6 felony.

When he appeared in Greene Superior Court, he requested court-appointed counsel and Deputy Public Defender Ellen Martin was appointed. Future court dates were scheduled and Farnsworth’s bond was set at $10,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. He hasn’t posted bond, he’s still in jail, and it does look like he has a sentence to serve as a result of the Starke County conviction.