OLNEY, Ill, (WTWO/WAWV)— Richland County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a man who escaped after failing to arrive at the sheriff’s office to turn himself in.
According to Sheriff Andrew Hires with the Richland County Sheriff’s Office, Nathan Ellison had been charged multiple times with failure to register as a sex offender, due to this Ellison had pleaded guilty to at least one of these charges and took a plea of six years in the Department of Corrections as his punishment. Rather than being held after his conviction a Facebook post from the Richland County Sheriff’s Office states that the newly issued Safety Act allowed Ellison to be released on electronic home monitoring.
Sheriff Hires stated that on Tuesday at noon, Ellison was required to turn himself in at the sheriff’s office to be taken to the Illinois Department of Corrections. After an investigation, the sheriffs found that he was dropped off in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office but instead of going inside to turn himself in, went into a nearby business where he went into the bathroom, cut off his ankle monitor, threw it in the trash and ran off according to Sheriff Hires.
The electronic monitoring company then got ahold of the office and asked if he was in custody when they informed him that he was supposed to be turning himself in shortly. The monitoring company then gave the sheriff’s office the information that it had been cut off nearby.
Ellison is wanted and is now also being charged with escape. When Ellison is caught he will be brought back to face the new charges if prosecutors decide to press forward with the charges. Sheriff Hires also added that he believed Ellison was being investigated in other counties for similar child sex-related crimes and that warrants would likely soon be issued for him.
Sheriff Hires also added that they believed him to still be in the Olney area based on no leads to the contrary and anonymous tips from the public that he has been seen in the area over the last few days. If you have any information on the location of Ellison the Richland County Sheriff’s Department would like to remind the public to contact Richland County Dispatch at 618-393-2921 or email Detective Jonah Laws at jlaws@richlandcounty.illinois.gov
