Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announces today the return of an indictment charging Jimmie Dwight Whitfield (42, Valdosta, GA) with failing to register as a sex offender after relocating from Georgia to Florida. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison. Whitfield was arrested in Atlantic Beach, Florida on October 25, 2018.
According to the indictment, on August 31, 1995, Whitfield was convicted of lewd, lascivious, and indecent acts with a minor in Jacksonville, Florida. On September 29, 2016, he was convicted of sexual battery and sodomy in Valdosta. Following his convictions, between March 20 and October 25, 2018, he traveled from Georgia to Florida and failed to register as a sex offender as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
SORNA is part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The Act also provides for the use of federal law enforcement resources, including the United States Marshals Service, to assist state and local authorities in locating and apprehending non-compliant sex offenders.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service, the Lowndes County (GA) Sheriff’s Office, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.
It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.