BELFAST (AP) — A Belfast man has been charged with terrorizing after he allegedly threatened a newspaper editor for publishing his name in a list of registered sex offenders, police said.

Gerald Clark, 48, was issued a summons after confronting Beth Staples, editor of the Republican Journal, about the list, said Chief Deputy Robert Keating of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department.

Keating said the police report indicated that Clark told Staples that “he was going to take care of her for putting his name in the paper.”

Keating said that when Clark was asked what he meant by his comments, he replied, “You know what I meant,” according to the report.

State law requires that convicted sex offenders register their names and addresses with local police agencies. The list published in the Journal contained the names of 59 convicted offenders residing in Waldo County.

Staples said that Clark appeared angry and intimidating when he showed up at the newspaper offices Friday morning. She said the Journal published the names to alert residents that convicted sex offenders were living in their communities.

“It’s community service,” Staples said. “I knew it would impact the people on the list negatively, but for people with children and the community in general, people should have the right to know.”

According to Waldo County Superior Court records, Clark pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact in 1993 and received a suspended four-year prison sentence with four years probation. Clark also was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16.



Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.