Monroe Deputies Arrest Two Sex Offenders Failing to Register in Florida Keys

Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators conducting compliance checks in the Florida Keys located two convicted sex offenders who had failed to meet their registration requirements, resulting in arrests by Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Joshua Roland, 40, a registered sex offender since his 2007 conviction for unlawful sexual contact with a minor in Portage, a village in Wood County, Ohio, had never notified law enforcement that he was living in the Florida Keys. Deputies found him working in commercial fishing and residing in Key West before arresting him at 11:25 p.m. Tuesday at 251 Mars Lane in Geiger Key. Roland faces three charges: failure to register changes to employment information, failure to report a residence change, and failure to register as required. His bond was set at $75,000, and his arraignment is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. on April 9.

Manuel Herbert, 44, was arrested the following day at 420 County Road on Stock Island. Herbert carries two sexual battery convictions from 2006 in Monroe County. As recently as last year, he had been registered as living in North Miami; FDLE investigators tracked him to Stock Island as part of the same compliance operation. Herbert faces three counts of failure to report a residence change and is scheduled for arraignment at 9 a.m. on April 2. No bond amount for Herbert was immediately available.

Both men were held at the Monroe County Jail in Key West as of Thursday.

The arrests mark the first confirmed results of an active FDLE effort to locate sex offenders who have failed to register in the Florida Keys. Whether additional arrests are expected as the compliance checks continue has not been announced.