When a deputy started looking into where a convicted sex offender was living, he was told the man had been living in a tent pitched in various places and then was staying at an apartment less than 200 feet from school property.

Jacob Lee Farnsworth, 24, of Jasonville, was arrested by Greene County Sheriff’s Deputy James Carpenter last Friday morning.

Farnsworth was wanted on a warrant that was issued for his arrest after an investigation by Deputy Carpenter into where Farnsworth had been living.

A citizen had called the Indiana State Police in late April to report Farnsworth was living near Shakamak Schools in Jasonville.

When Deputy Carpenter started asking questions, one person said Farnsworth was staying in an apartment across from the school for a week or two and had previously been living in a tent at another residence in Jasonville.

Temperance Harris, the Greene County Registrar, said Farnsworth had not talked to her and had not been in to the sheriff’s department to change his address or update his work information. She also said GCSD Deputy Bruce Porter had tried to locate Farnsworth on April 11 at Farnsworth’s last known address but failed to find him.

When Carpenter talked to people at Farnsworth’s last registered address, he learned Farnsworth had not lived there since April 5 and he was again told Farnsworth had been staying in a tent in different places.

When he talked to the resident of the apartment, she allegedly admitted Farnsworth had been staying there and he had told her it was fine.

Carpenter reported the apartment is 187 feet east of the center of a driveway into the Shakamak School property.

Farnsworth was convicted of sexual battery in Clay County in 2013 and is required to register on the Indiana Sexual and Violent Offenders List until 2025.

Since that conviction, according to Carpenter, Farnsworth has been convicted of failure to register once in Starke County and twice in Greene County and he has not updated his address on his driver’s license since April of 2016.

Farnsworth’s bond was set at $18,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed.

When he appears in court for an initial hearing, he will be formally charged with:

• Failure to register as a sex or violent offender, a Level 6 felony,

• Illegal sex offender residency within 1000 feet of school property, a Level 6 felony, and

• Failure to register as a sex or violent offender with a prior conviction for failure to register, a Level 5 felony.