Atchison police arrest Rushville man on sex offender warrants

Atchison police took a Rushville, Missouri man into custody Monday evening on Buchanan County warrants tied to sex-offender registration and nonsupport, then booked him into the Atchison County Jail within minutes of the arrest. Thomas A. Blankenship, 42, was arrested in the 10000 block of U.S. Highway 59 shortly before 5 p.m. and booked at 5:28 p.m. under booking number IN202600308, with bond set at $7,500.

Atchison Police Chief Mike Wilson said the warrants included failure to register as a sex offender and nonsupport. The Atchison County Sheriff’s Office booking roster lists two Buchanan County, Missouri warrant charges, including an arrest warrant issued by Buchanan County and another unspecified Missouri warrant. Once Blankenship was in custody, the case became a local jail matter in Atchison County rather than an out-of-county warrant stop on the highway corridor.

Blankenship’s name is already tied to an earlier Atchison case. Missouri State Highway Patrol offender records show a sex offense dated March 1, 2003, when Blankenship was 19 years old. The record lists the victim as a 15-year-old girl, identifies the offense city as Atchison, Kansas, and gives Blankenship’s home address at the time as Rushville in Buchanan County, Missouri.

That history explains why registration violations are treated as serious offenses by law enforcement on both sides of the state line. Missouri law makes failure to register as a sex offender a felony, and penalties increase for repeat violations. Kansas law also treats failure to comply with offender-registration duties as a violation of the Kansas Offender Registration Act.

Atchison County Sheriff’s Office materials say the county oversees registration for more than 100 sex, violent and drug offenders and uses OffenderWatch as part of its public notification system. Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office also provides public warrant lookup and sex-offender registry information, underscoring how this arrest crossed county lines but ended in one familiar place for local officers: the Atchison County Jail.