Sex Offender Who Fled Canada Arrested in Seattle
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Wavebreak Media/Thinkstock(SEATTLE) — Michael Sean Stanley, a violent sex offender who recently fled Canada, was arrested for harassment Tuesday in Seattle. Police said several calls reporting a disturbance in an alley led them to Stanley. When police arrived, they said Stanley became combative. He appeared intoxicated and said he had a small knife.
The Seattle Police Department said Stanley was suspected of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy in the alleyway just before Stanley was arrested.
“A 16-year-old male walks over to the officers and basically tells them that he was sexually assaulted by the guy they had in handcuffs,” Seattle Police Department’s Renee Witt told ABC’s Seattle-Tacoma television affiliate, KOMO News.
According to police, Stanley made conversation with the teenager in a grocery store just before 6 a.m. He then walked with the boy into an alleyway, where he allegedly grabbed and sexually assaulted him, according to police.
This caused the loud disturbance that led to Stanley’s arrest, according to police.
“This morning we just heard a man yelling outside our window,” a neighbor, who did not wish to be identified, told KOMO. “We were actually scared to look outside.”
Stanley had crossed into the United States from Canada earlier this month after cutting off his electronic monitoring device. Officials portrayed him as a violent offender who posed a major risk.
Located in Seattle last week, Canadian officials declined to extradite Stanley, who is a U.S. citizen.
Stanley registered as a sex offender with the King County Sheriff’s Office, and public records show his address as one block away from a preschool.
Currently in King County jail on the harassment charge, Stanley will be rebooked on felony sexual assault charges. He is due to appear in King County court Wednesday afternoon.
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