LINKY POO

WJZ) LINTHICUM, Md. A violent sex offender is arrested this week for raping a woman at a light rail station. Police were supposed to know the whereabouts of that convicted rapist for life, but Suzanne Collins reports they'd lost track of him.

Eugene Waller was arrested Tuesday for raping a woman at an Anne Arundel County light rail station. He'd already been convicted of rape twice before and a judge had labeled him a sexually violent offender. That means he was to be tracked and monitored by police for life, but the address Waller gave recently is a vacant lot and his picture had disappeared from the state sex offender website. A state senator says this points out problems with the system.

"There's a lot of things in the last six months regarding sex offenders and loopholes and probation and good time credits that need to be changed," said Senator Nancy Jacobs.

Right now, the state oversees the database of sex offenders' photos and addresses, but it's local police agencies which are responsible for monitoring those people making sure they don't disappear.

When a sex offender moves from one area to another, it can create confusion, as it did in the case of Eugene Waller.

He was living in Anne Arundel County, but gave a new address last year in Baltimore on Greenmount Avenue: a vacant lot.

Anne Arundel County Police had been tracking Waller but they referred it to Baltimore City Police. Two detectives came out here to check out the new address and they found out it wasn't legitimate. It was at that point Waller fell through the cracks.

Critics say too many different law enforcement agencies with two little time and money are responsible for an issue of great public safety and they say it's hard to trust the sex offender himself will report as required to police, when he's already violated the law.

"He's responsible to go to the police department and say, `Hi, I'm here. This is where I'm living, because unless he's done that, we will not know there's a sex offender living in our community," said Marty Burns.

Waller's picture was taken off the sex offender website when he was in jail, according to state policy. When he got back out, his picture never went back on. A prosecutor charging Waller with rape says that doesn't make sense.

"This is a policy decision that needs to be looked at again. We feel once you're on the sex registry, you should stay on," said Deputy State's Attorney Bill Roessler.

Senator Norman Stone, who created the sex offender registry more than a decade ago, tells Eyewitness News he will introduce a bill to make sure a sex offender's picture is never taken off the registry just because he happens to be in jail.

Waller remains held without bail at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on rape charges.

Twice a rapist free on the streets... How nice...

This makes me sick, why do they let these people out?

Quoted: This makes me sick, why do they let these people out?

They let him out to make room in the jail for some pot head