One of Rhode Island’s Most Wanted doubles as local fitness instructor
On October 12, 2010, members of the United States Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force, consisting of members of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, United States Marshals Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, received information that a unregistered Sexual Offender, and one of Rhode Island’s Most Wanted Fugitives, was living in Lee County.
Acting on information provided by the United States Marshals Office in Rhode Island, local investigators began a diligent background search in an attempt to locate Joseph Michael King (DOB 3/12/74). On Oct. 14, 2010, at approximately 9:01 A.M, he was located inside the Omni Gym in Fort Myers. King was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Lee County Jail.
King was convicted in 1999 in Providence, Rhode Island for Second Degree Sexual Assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison, all suspended with probation. On Jan. 11, 2010, King was convicted of Failing to Register as a Sexual Offender and sentenced to three years in prison, all suspended with probation. An arrest warrant for King was issued on March 24, 2010, but King left Rhode Island after his sentencing and moved to Fort Myers and established work as a Personal Trainer working at numerous gyms in Lee County. He is not an employee of the Omni Gym and was not working with a client at the time of his arrest.
Further investigation revealed that King also had two more outstanding arrests warrants out of Rhode Island for Failure to Appear for Restitution Review on a Charge of Obtaining Money Under False Pretenses and an original charge of Obtaining Money Under False Pretenses. Detectives from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Sexual Offender / Predator Unit were contacted and conducted an investigation on King’s Florida status as a registered Sexual Offender. At the conclusion of their investigation, King was also charged with Failure to Comply with Sexual Offender Obligation, a third degree felony.
King’s Rhode Island photographs and criminal history can be viewed at www.rimostwanted.org under Sexual Offenses. Lee County booking photos and additional information can be found on the Sheriff’s Office website at www.sherifflelfl.org under Arrest & Inmates / Search Lee County Arrests.
At the conclusion of King’s Lee County charges, he will be returned to Rhode Island to face his arrests warrants pending an extradition hearing.