A Beatrice man will serve probation for a sex offender registry violation.  Gage County District Judge Rick Schreiner sentenced 39-year-old Jeremy Stewart, of Beatrice to a two-year probation term for failing to register as a convicted sex offender. Stewart had faced a similar violation in the State of Kansas for violating a sex offender registry requirement…and is on probation for that. Stewart’s attorney is Gage County Public Defender Lee Timan. "The case that he is currently on probation for, out of Sumner County in Kansas is related to this offense. Basically, Mr. Stewart was living in Sumner County, Kansas. He then moved up here to Gage County, to kind of get a fresh start. When he moved, he failed to notify the Sumner County authorities that he had moved to Nebraska, and then also failed to notify Gage County that he was living here. So, when law enforcement found that he was living here, he got charges in both counties."


Timan said Stewart has since resolved the Kansas matter….and he currently works for a Beatrice manufacturer. Judge Schreiner noted that Stewart was convicted of sex offenses in Kansas in 2006 and 2007 and was sentenced to incarceration.


"You're going to have to carry that with you....you're a life-time registrant, are you not? (Stewart) .."Yes" (Schreiner)..."So, wherever you go, the first place you should stop is the sheriff's office....and the last place you should have stopped before you left Kansas was that sheriff's office. So, there's really not much excuse, for failing to register."


The probation term given Thursday to Stewart was ordered to run consecutively to the Kansas probation term.  Stewart was convicted of aggravated indecent liberties with a child in Sumner and Cowley Counties in Kansas……cases involving sex with girls ages 14 and 15.


In a separate district court case Thursday, 42-year-old Heath Genrich, of Barneston was ordered to serve a three-year probation term for possession of THC…a class-4 felony. Deputy Gage County Attorney Braden Dvorak says a plea agreement dropped several other cases against Genrich.


"The plea agreement in this case was that the defendant would plead to one felony...five county court cases would be dismissed...and another felony charge would be dismissed. This was a long time coming...the defendant has gone through the Lincoln Regional Center, through mental health treatment in order to get him here, today. From the state's perspective, these cases have done a lot of good for the defendant, for his family and for the community."


Public Defender Lee Timan said Genrich did not have a high-level criminal history nor a record of violence.
Gage County District Judge Schreiner said it appears Genrich has changed in what he said was a long road to get to this point.


"You've sat in front of me a number of times and on maybe several of those occasions I have seen kind of a lost look on your face, which is absent today. You don't have that frown that I saw...you actually smiled at me a moment ago, whether you intended to, or not. It looks to me like you are doing better, which frankly is all that we want."