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Violent Sex Offender Flees Canada, But Seattle Police Can't Arrest Him

caption: Michael Sean Stanley, described by police as a violent sex offender, has been tracked to downtown Seattle.
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Michael Sean Stanley, described by police as a violent sex offender, has been tracked to downtown Seattle.
AP Photo/Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Update: Michael Sean Stanley has registered as a sex offender in Washington state.

A man described by Seattle police as a “sexually violent predator” has been located in downtown Seattle but will not be arrested.

Michael Sean Stanley, 48, fled Canada last week and entered the US through Blaine, Wash. Border officials found no reason to arrest him or deny him entrance.

Canadian officials have declined to extradite Stanley, who ripped off his ankle monitor, and Seattle police said in a statement that they won’t arrest him because they “have not received any information that Stanley has committed any crimes while in the US.”

According to the statement: “Law enforcement officials on both sides of the US border are working to resolve this very complicated situation.”

US Marshals found Stanley in Seattle on Thursday after receiving a tip that he was in the area. Seattle police have asked him to register as a sex offender in Washington state. If he doesn’t, then he could be arrested.

Stanley spent nine years in prison in the late 1980s for sexually assaulting an 82-year-old woman in a wheelchair, according to the Globe and Mail.

The newspaper reported that Stanley was jailed again in 2006 for luring and assaulting two mentally disabled boys, ages 9 and 13, from a playground to an apartment, where he blew crack smoke in their faces.

After Stanley escaped Canadian police surveillance in early October, schools in western Saskatchewan went on partial lockdown, according to the newspaper.

Stanley is 5’8, weighs 179 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, his initials, "M.S." are tattooed on his right hand.

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