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Unregistered Sex Offender Caught While On Safe Passage Route

By  Kyla Gardner and Erin Meyer | August 28, 2013 3:32pm 

 Tommie Lynch, 63, was spotted while walking along a high school Safe Passage route Tuesday and arrested for failing to register as a sex offender, officials said.
Tommie Lynch, 63, was spotted while walking along a high school Safe Passage route Tuesday and arrested for failing to register as a sex offender, officials said.
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Illinois State Police Sex Offender Registry

CHICAGO — An unregistered sex offender was arrested by police while walking a Chicago Public Schools Safe Passage route Tuesday, officials said.

Tommie Lynch, 63, has been on the sex offender registry since January 2001, and was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 13, according to an Illinois State Police database.

Lynch is required to register his address every 90 days, but he last registered in March with an address at 200 S. Sacramento Blvd. in East Garfield Park, a Joshua Ministries men's shelter, records show.

When Lynch failed to register by June 11, authorities found he was no longer living at the shelter and issued an alert for him, authorities said.

Lynch was spotted while walking along a high school "Safe Passage" route Tuesday and was arrested at 430 S. Western Ave. for failure to re-register, according to police and prosecutors.

He has been convicted of five prior felonies, including three for failure to register, according to court documents.

The Safe Passage program was created in 2009 to provide students safe escorts to school. It was expanded this year to create routes from closing elementary schools to welcoming schools after CPS shuttered 50 school buildings.