Police Beat by Tom Geyer

As if Davenport Police Detective Rich Tubbs and the other members of the Scott County Sex Offender Task Force that encompasses nine law enforcement agencies don’t have enough to do, now they are dealing with a case that certainly indicates a flaw somewhere in the system.

The arrest Friday of registered sex offender Ruben Perales is at least the fourth time Scott County officials have dealt with this guy. He is being held this time for posing as a cop and trying to extort money from other sex offenders. He also has an immigration hold on him, which means he’s on track to be deported to Mexico, again. See where this is going?

In 1991 Perales was convicted of indecent contact with a male child below the age of 13. He was convicted in 1993 of sex abuse third-degree with a male child below the age of 13. According to Det. Tubbs, Perales was deported after his prison sentence.
“He was deported in 1997,” Tubbs said.

In 2002, Tubbs said he got a tip that Perales was working at a kiosk at NorthPark Mall. Tubbs went out there and sure enough, Perales was there. Tubbs arrested him and charged him with failure to register as a sex offender. Perales was convicted of the charge, and then the Feds nailed him with charges of unlawful entry by an alien after deportation and false representation of U.S. citizenship. He pleaded guilty to the charges Jan. 27, 2003, and was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison.
Perales was released from the federal prison at Yazoo City, Miss., in Feb. of 2008, and was again deported.

Yet, Mr. Perales, now age 39, shows up again in Scott County and attempted to extort money out of other sex offenders by posing as a cop and telling them they need to pay $75 because of errors with their offender registry.

Perales is charged with extortion, failure to register as a sex offender second offense, living within 2000 feet of a school, and impersonating a cop. Immigration also has a hold on him.
There are 283 people listed on the Scott County Sex Offender Registry as of Thursday, April 9. Tubbs is trying to find out why this guy keeps coming back to Davenport.

“My guess is he has connections here,” Tubbs said. “But we really don’t know that answer. I want to find out.”

It took some serious digging on the federal web site Pacer which has federal court documents. Perales’ last case was back in 2002 and 2003 so I’m surprised there was anything at all. Old documents are purged quickly. According to those documents, Perales came here with his family when he was 4. But he’s a convicted felon, so that blows any green card chances he may have had.

The other question, how is it he is getting back in the U.S. given all the new security after 9-11?

As Tubbs said, “Like a bad penny, this guy keeps turning up.”