Sex offender accused of living with child near park

 STILLWATER — A registered sex offender has been jailed on $10,000 bond pending his July 28 arraignment on charges of illegally living near Couch Park in Stillwater at a home in which a 13-year-old child was residing.

   Due to his extensive criminal record, Jesse William Hodge Jr., 43, could be given as much as two life prison terms if convicted of both felonies, which were filed by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent.

   Hodge was arrested by Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Rockford Brown at 2:20 pm on July 14 at a house to which Stillwater Police Officer Casey Rogers had been sent on July 11 for an assault investigation, an affidavit said.

   “During the course of Rogers’ investigation, it was determined Jesse Hodge had been at the residence. Due to this assault investigation, a child welfare referral was made. On July 14, I responded to (the residence) with DHS for a child welfare investigation,” the sheriff’s investigator wrote in his affidavit.

   “I made contact with Hodge and (a woman) who were lying in bed inside the residence. I asked Hodge to come outside and speak with me. Hodge told me he was not residing (there) but had only come to visit (the woman). Hodge told me he had stayed the night of July 11, after the SPD was called to the residence, and he may have stayed one or two other nights,” the sheriff’s investigator alleged in his affidavit.

   When she was interviewed, the woman stated, “Hodge had stayed at the residence overnight, possibly 2-3 days,” the affidavit alleged.

   A relative of the child said, “She had witnessed Hodge in and around the residence on several occasions, and she believed he was living in the house. Another relative of the child said, “He had witnessed Hodge at the residence on multiple occasions and believed he was living there,” the affidavit alleged.

   “Hodge is prohibited from staying temporarily at this address as it is within 2,000 feet of Couch Park. Hodge is also prohibited from residing with minor children as he is convicted of (a crime) in which his victim was under the age of 16,” the affidavit alleged.

   In 2005, Hodge was accused of raping a 15-year-old Glencoe girl, but he avoided a jury trial by accepting a plea bargain on a reduced charge of assault with intent to commit a crime, for which he was given a five-year prison term in January of 2006; he was released in December of 2007 after serving less than two years, state Department of Corrections records show.

   In 2010, Hodge was placed on probation for 10 years for indecent exposure in Ripley in 2009; he admitted he was completely naked in the yards and road of the 2000 block of S. Dunn Street.

   Hodge was convicted of failure to register as a sex offender three times in Okmulgee County — in 2011, 2012 and 2015; in his last case, he was sentenced in 2016 to seven years in prison but only served two years and two months before his release in 2018, DOC records show. In 2010, Hodge was also convicted of failure to register as a sex offender twice in Payne County — in 2008 and 2009.