Lee Edward Combs
(PCSD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 74-year-old Cushing man, who was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse in 2000 in Linn County, Oregon, has been jailed on $2,000 bail on a charge of failing to comply with rules of the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registration Act.
Lee Edward Combs, who has been ordered to appear in court on Sept. 9, could be given a five-year prison term if convicted of failing to notify the state Department of Corrections and the Cushing Police Department within two days of entering the state of his intention to be in Oklahoma for at least five consecutive days in any 60-day period.
Combs, who was arrested on Aug. 19 at the Cushing Public Safety Center, had not registered his address with the city although he had been staying in at a residence in the 1100 block of E. Katy for about a week, an affidavit alleged.
When Cushing Police Officer Kyle Wright asked Combs how long he had been living at that address, Combs said “approximately a month,” an affidavit alleged.
“I asked Combs if he was aware that he could not live at that residence, and he stated ‘no.’ I asked Combs if he had ever registered with our records clerk for the sex offender registry, and he stated ‘no,"” Wright alleged in his affidavit.
“Officer Beal stated that he spoke with Combs on May 20, 2023, and advised him that he could not live in town. Beal stated Combs then left town.
“Officer Beal stated that he spoke with Combs again on Saturday and told him he needed to be at the station on Monday morning to speak with records,” the affidavit alleged.
When Officer Beal went to the residence where Combs had been staying, a woman “stated that she was unaware that Combs was a sex offender and that he had stayed with them off and on over the last two years, no longer than a month at a time,” the affidavit alleged.
The residence in the 1100 block of E. Katy is about 227 feet northwest of the property line of a licensed childcare center, the affidavit alleged.
