EUGENE, Ore. — A North Carolina man who was illegally living in the Deschutes National Forest was sentenced to federal prison Thursday after months of failing to register as a sex offender.
According to court documents, in 2006, Russell Joseph Szkolnyj, of Wake County, North Carolina was convicted of sex crimes involving a six-year-old child and ordered to register as a sex offender. He was later convicted in 2009 and 2012 for failing to register. In 2018, Szkolnyj once again failed to register, and the Wake County Sheriff’s Office got a warrant for his arrest.
Szkolnyj relocated to Oregon at some point, and in July 2018, he was advised by police officers in John Day of his need to register. Ten days later when he was contacted by police in Bend, officers say Szkonyj still hadn’t registered.
In November of 2018, Szkolnyj was found to be living in the Deschutes National Forest. U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers told Szkonyj that he could not reside on public land and needed to immediately vacate the forest. At that time, the officers discovered that Szkonyj was still not registered as a sex offender and referred the matter to the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
The U.S. Marshals Service investigation determined that by January of this year, Szkolnyj was staying in Hood River and was likely heading toward Portland. In February, Szkolnyj was arrested by Hillsboro Police. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, at the time of his arrest, Szkolnyj had been in at least five Oregon counties over an 8-month period while failing to register as a sex offender.
Szkolnyj pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register as a sex offender in September. On Thursday, the 51-year-old was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised release.
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