In the other case, a man had been convicted of felony-level sexual abuse in Texas, but the conviction was dismissed when he finished his prison sentence. He was still required to register in Utah when he moved here, though the licensing office cleared him to live in the home.

The audit revealed ambiguity in state policy about how to handle a situation like his, and recommended the licensing office come up with clearer policies about how to handle overturned or "set aside" convictions.

The audit also found that it was unclear whether at least 12 offenders, who were living in the same apartment buildings as licensed child care providers, had unsupervised access to the children. State licensing policy requires inspections that "demonstrate restrictions preventing unsupervised access to the child care facility," according to the report. "However, such documentation does not always exist."

In one example, a house was divided into five apartments, and offenders were living in four of the units. Though each apartment had a separate entrance, case file documentation was unclear about whether interior doors would give offenders access to other apartments.

The audit recommends the licensing office do more to document that, among other steps to make sure offenders don't have unsupervised access to children, or other vulnerable people.

On the positive side, the audit also found that none of the sampled education agencies employed sex offenders, nor did the Utah State Developmental Center or the Utah State Hospital.

mmcfall@sltrib.com

Twitter: @MikeyPanda

Link:
Audit finds problems monitoring Utah sex offenders' access to children