MARION/CLINTON COUNTY, IL — A Marion County judge on Wednesday found 26-year-old Centralia man not guilty of violating the sex offender registration. Thomas Smith was charged with failing to report a change of address or employment with previous convictions for registry violations.

Following a brief bench trial Wednesday morning, Judge Mark Stedelin found Smith not guilty of the Class 2 felony charge and also scheduled an October 26 pre-trial hearing in a separate case charging Smith with multiple sex offenses. In that case, Smith is facing two Class X felonies for predatory criminal sexual assault of a 6-year-old child and Class 2 felony aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 13. Smith was already a registered sexual predator at the time of this latest arrest.

It appears the initial crime and conviction that landed Smith on the Registry occurred when he was a juvenile in Clinton County, so any associated court and correctional information is sealed. He has since been convicted in 2015 of possessing child pornography on his computer and violating the sex offender registration then in 2017, he was convicted of child sex offender loitering and child sex offender communicating on the internet – all in Clinton County.

He was then convicted in 2020 in Clinton County of violating the sex offender registration.