New sex offenders register in Lincoln County
The Lincoln County Sex and Violent Offender Registry (SVOR) includes five new registrants, including four sex offenders, according to a Nov. 13 release from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
The new sex offenders are Lloyd Albert Flett, whose registered residence is in the Troy area, and Brian Keith Cooper, Willie James Frye and Kris Knute Hedahl, both with registered addresses in Libby.
Two of the offenders fall into tier level one for offenders, as determined by the Department of Corrections. Tier levels are assigned by the department as a means of assessing the likelihood that a sexual offender will re-offend. Tier levels also attempt to evaluate the level of threat an offender poses to public safety, one is considered a level three offender and one does not have a tier level assigned.
Tier one offenders are considered the least likely to re-offend. The 53-year-old Flett, evaluated tier one, was sentenced in 1991 in Washington state for one count of indecent liberties with a victim under 16 years of age.
The 48-year-old Frye was also categorized as a tier one offender. He was sentenced in South Carolina on two counts of second degree criminal sexual conduct.
Hedahl is Lincoln County’s first tier three-rated offender. The 66-year-old Hedahl was sentenced in 1995 on two charges of incest and one of sexual assault.
The department defines tier three offenders as: “the risk of a repeat sexual offense is high, there is a threat to public safety, and an evaluator believes the offender is a sexually violent predator.”
Hedahl is under constant surveillance by Montana Adult Probation and Parole and is required to wear a location tracking device at all times.
Cooper is a 30-year-old man with a registered address in the Libby area. He was sentenced on two charges of third degree sexual abuse of a minor, one charge of second degree sexual abuse of a minor and one first degree charge of sexual assault. Cooper has not been assigned a tier level.
According to the Department of Corrections website, some sexual offenders may not be assigned a tier level if it was not ordered by the judge at the time of sentencing and in cases in which the sentence was pronounced prior to 1997. Violent offenders are not assigned tier levels.
The violent offender added to Lincoln County’s registry is Bryon Dean Griffin, a 51-year-old Trego man given a deferred sentence after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor and one felony count of partner family member assault earlier this year.
In total, there are 57 sexual offenders with registered addresses in Lincoln County on the recently-released registry. Hedahl is the only one categorized as level three. Five of the offenders are rated as level two offenders, offenders the departments considers to be a “moderate” risk for re-offending. The rest are level one offenders. The list also includes 33 violent offenders and nine non-compliant offenders.