CASS COUNTY — Level 3 predatory offender Michael Paul Henson will move to the Backus area Feb. 15, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports.
Henson, 49, engaged in criminal sexual conduct and contact with two female children not known to him. He gained access to each victim, on separate occasions, while in public at retail stores. He exposed himself to a victim and sexually touched a victim.
Henson has served his sentence and will transition into the community, residing in the vicinity of Swede Lake Trail Southwest and 12th Street Southwest in rural Backus.
The Cass County Sheriff's Office is releasing this information pursuant to Minnesota Statutes 244.052 and 253D, authorizing law enforcement agencies to inform communities of a public registrant’s release from prison or a secure treatment facility when the law enforcement believes the release of information will enhance public safety and protection.
This notification is not intended to increase fear but rather raise awareness; law enforcement believes that an informed public is a safer public, the sheriff’s office stated in a news release.
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The Cass County Sheriff's Office may not direct where this individual does or does not reside, nor can this agency direct where he works or goes to school.
“Convicted sexual and predatory individuals have always been released to live in our communities,” the news release stated. “It was not until the passage of the Registration Act that law enforcement had an ability to track movement of these individuals after their initial release. With the passage of the Community Notification Act, law enforcement may now share information about many of these individuals with the public. Abuse of this information to threaten, harass or intimidate a registered person is unacceptable and such acts could be charged as a crime. Such abuses could potentially end the ability of law enforcement to provide these notifications.”
