After a registered sex offender allegedly failed to tell authorities that he’d quit his job, prosecutors charged the Ralston resident with a felony and are seeking to send him back to his home state.

Records show 35-year-old Curtis Brown is required to register because of three felony sex crimes he committed against a minor in Kansas in 2012; court records indicate Brown was 22 years old at the time, while the victim was 14 or 15.

Brown remains under supervision for those offenses and a 2013 theft, Kansas records show, but he received permission to transfer his probation to Wyoming. Brown’s local probation agent and a Park County Sheriff’s deputy visited his Ralston home on May 11, and reportedly found some problems. Most significantly, sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Lawler said he learned during the visit that Brown was no longer working at a Powell fast food restaurant.

Wyoming law says those on the sex offender registry must notify the sheriff’s office, in person, of where they’re working, “including any loss of employment, within three working days of the change …” Although Brown quit the restaurant on May 9, he failed to formally notify the sheriff’s office of the change by the evening of May 14, Lawler wrote in an affidavit. 

Roughly a week later, the Park County Attorney’s Office charged Brown with a felony count of failure to update registration information. He was arrested at the Powell probation office on May 26.

‘This is my first failure to register’

During a Park County Circuit Court hearing the following day, Deputy County Prosecuting Attorney Ericka Smith recommended that bail be set at $50,000, cash only.

Beyond the failure to report the change in employment, Brown had been caught on May 11 with “several [electronic] devices he was not allowed to have, and he had one coming in the mail,” Smith said. Additionally, data from a location-tracking ankle monitor indicated Brown left the state the weekend before he was taken into custody, “knowing he was not allowed to do that,” she said.

“The state does not believe there’s any way to keep the community safe and keep Mr. Brown where he needs to be to deal with these charges,” Smith said.

For his part, Brown requested a lower bond.

“This is my first failure to register,” he said. “I was doing good. I had a job. Life got a hold of me.”

Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah cut Brown off before he continued, warning the defendant’s comments would be used against him. When Brown had the chance to speak again, he said he didn’t understand the need for such a high bond.

“I can be a better member of society,” he said. “I can go to work and do what I need to do.”

Darrah proceeded to adopt the prosecution’s $50,000 recommendation, which prompted Brown to express some frustration.

“I don’t understand I got to have the same amount as the … chick that did manslaughter,” he said, referring to an identical cash bond that Darrah set minutes earlier for Brooke Trask of Cody; Trask is charged with felony counts of manslaughter and delivering methadone in connection with a fatal 2024 drug overdose in Cody.

Darrah didn’t respond to Brown’s remark.

Asking Kansas ‘to come get him’

Court records show Brown was convicted in Sedgwick County, Kansas, in 2013 of indecent solicitation of a child, aggravated indecent liberties with a child and criminal sodomy. 

He originally received three years of probation for the crimes, records say, but committed a half-dozen violations in the following months that included failing to complete a sex offender treatment program, using meth and committing a theft. In early February 2014, a Sedgwick District Court judge revoked Brown’s probation and imposed a 122-month — or 10-plus-year — prison sentence.

Records from the Kansas Department of Corrections indicate Brown was out of custody by late 2023 and granted permission to live in Wyoming. However, he returned to Kansas the following year, and department records indicate he was arrested on a parole violation before being re-released.

Once Brown’s pending felony case in Park County is completed, prosecutor Smith said the State of Wyoming “will be asking Kansas to come get him.”

“He is obviously here at the discretion of probation and parole and has violated that privilege to be here, frankly,” she said.

A preliminary hearing — where Darrah will determine if there’s enough evidence for the failure to update information charge to advance toward a trial in district court — is tentatively scheduled for Thursday.