A registered sex offender who moved to a Wildwood motel without reporting a change of address to law enforcement is behind bars in the Lake County Jail.
Lee Anthony Roberson, 62, was arrested at the Sumter County Detention Center on an outstanding Lake County warrant and transferred to the Lake County Jail, where he is being held on $50,000 bond and is due in court April 19 to answer to the charge. Records show that Roberson had been incarcerated at the Sumter County jail facility since March 27, 2020.
Roberson is required to register as a sex offender because of a March 1984 conviction of aggravated sexual assault in Essex County, N.J. He also was convicted in November 2010 in Lake County for robbery with a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, grand theft and two counts of aggravated assault. He was released from the Florida Department of Corrections on March 1, 2020, records show.
The following day, Roberts registered in Lake County and provided employment and a permanent address in Clermont. On March 16, 2020, he changed his permanent address to the Lee Motel in Leesburg, located at S. 14th Street and listed his new employer as Stacy’s Lawn Care in Wildwood, a Lake County sheriff’s office report states.
Two days later, the Leesburg Police Department contacted a Lake County sheriff’s detective to see if there were any new addresses listed for Roberts, as he was a suspect in a felony battery case. Leesburg Police reported that Roberts was no longer staying at the Lee Motel, which was confirmed by Lake County detectives.
A few days later, a Lake County detective was told that Roberson was staying in Wildwood at the Budget Inn, located at 344 E. State Road 44. A staff member at the motel said the room was booked by Roberson’s employer but he paid the rent for the next day each day before 11 a.m., the report says.
As a sex offender, Roberts is required by law to report vacating a residence within 48 hours and then report his new address as well – both of which he failed to do, the report says.
