A convicted sex offender with a pending case in LaPorte County is free after the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed his conviction from Marion County.
Richard Dobeski was charged in both LaPorte and Marion Counties on July 23, 2015 with the Level 6 felony offense of failure to register as a sex offender. LaPorte County Prosecuting Attorney John E. Espar says the charges in both jurisdictions were filed for the defendant’s alleged failure to register between July 16 and 23, 2015.
Court documents indicate Dobeski was allegedly in LaPorte County before returning to Marion County. State law allows for the filing of charges in any jurisdiction where convicted sex offender is located or resides after failing to register.
Dobeski was arrested in Marion County, and the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office requested a hold be placed on him in accordance with the law.
Dobeski has been in the custody of either the Marion or LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department since July 23, 2015. He was tried and convicted of failure to register as a sex offender in Marion County before being brought to LaPorte County to face the charge there.
On Dec. 12, 2016, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed Dobeski’s Marion County conviction for failure to register as a sex offender. Under state law, Dobeski is entitled to credit for time served in custody where he is arrested or held in jurisdiction if the time is related to those charges.
In this case, Espar says Dobeski was held for the charges in LaPorte County beginning July 23, 2015 during the same alleged failure to register period as was relied upon in the Marion County case. Since he has not been convicted yet in LaPorte County, the time he has already served must be credited toward any possible sentence.
Espar notes the maximum penalty for a Level 6 felony is 2.5 years. Indiana law entitles offenders to “day for day credit” for a Level 6 felony, which results in a “real time” sentence of 1.25 years. As a result, Espar says Dobeski has already served the maximum amount of jail time possible in the LaPorte County case, for which he has yet to be convicted. He was released this week from the LaPorte County Jail.
Dobeski was 16 in 1964 when he murdered two neighbor children. His two life sentences were reduced to 40 years each in 1989.
Dobeski was released from prison in 2003 but was charged in 2007 with fondling a 7-year-old Westville boy. He was also found to be in possession of child pornography, according to court documents. Dobeski was released from prison in 2013 with a GPS ankle bracelet for keeping track of his whereabouts. He cut it off while living in Gary and was arrested again for a parole violation, according to court documents.
