North Idaho sex offender fugitive caught in Florida
BILL BULEY | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 9 months AGO
Photo courtesy U.S. Marshals Philip Faris Jenison
Bill Buley covers the city of Coeur d'Alene for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has worked here since January 2020, after spending seven years on Kauai as editor-in-chief of The Garden Island newspaper. He enjoys running. | March 9, 2021 10:58 AM
The last time anyone in North Idaho saw Philip Faris Jenison was more than two decades ago.
He was convicted for molestation in 1995 and required by law to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison. He did for a while. But in 1999, he disappeared.
Friday, 21 years later, U.S. Marshals caught up with the 75-year-old in Florida. Jenison was Idaho’s longest absconded sex offender, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
“He’s been on my list for a long, long time,” said Kootenai County Sheriff's Office Detective Todd Jackson, who took over the KCSO sex offender registry in 2011.
Jenison has been on Jackson's noncompliant list since day one. Jackson followed leads and called family members to try and find him.
“To no avail,” Jackson said.
There are 343 adult registered sex offenders and four juvenile RSOs that Jackson keeps tabs on — where they live and work.
“We hold them accountable,” he said.
Authorities suspected that Jenison was in Florida, but didn’t know where. They kept looking, knocking on doors, and finally found him.
“Due to great police work by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, Detective Todd Jackson and in collaboration with the U.S. Marshals, he was tracked and apprehended,” read an email from a law enforcement officer to The Press.
In a phone call with The Press on Monday, Jackson said, “I just couldn’t be more happy. He’s been a kind of black eye for our county for a long, long time.”
According to the Idaho State Police sex offender registry, Jenison committed lewd conduct with a minor child in North Idaho in December 1995.
He served time in prison and when he was released, he was required to register with the National Sex Offender Registry.
According to WFLA in Tampa, Fla., he was living under the alias of Phillip Kane in Pasco County. Jenison was arrested in Dixie County and taken to jail, WFLA reported.
He will likely be extradited to Idaho, officials said. He also faces charges of failure to register as a sex offender in both Pasco and Dixie counties.
“The U.S. Marshals Service remains relentless in its pursuit of sex offenders who attempt to evade justice for the crimes they commit against children,” said U.S. Marshal Bill Berger of the Middle District of Florida in a prepared statement.
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