Roseville

Registered sex offender guilty of loitering in school zone

By Sara Kandel
C & G Staff Writer

Alfonsi

ROSEVILLE — A registered sex offender was found guilty of loitering in a school zone and sentenced to time served at a Dec. 5 preliminary exam in 39th District Court in Roseville.

Joseph Alfonsi, 46, of Clinton Township, pleaded no contest to violating the Michigan Sex Offenders Act when he approached a mother and child outside a Roseville elementary school Oct. 9. The act prohibits registered sex offenders, such as Alfonsi, from being within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, public swimming pools, playgrounds, arcades or any other places used primarily by individuals under the age of 17.

In the Oct. 9 incident, Alfonsi is accused of approaching a mother and daughter in the area of Kment Elementary School.

“He started a conversation and was asking the name of the school,” said Deputy Chief Don Glandon, of the Roseville Police Department. “He stated that he was to meet friends there. At the end of the conversation, he pointed to his crotch and asked if they wanted to see this.”

In the police report, the adult victim told police that, at the time of the incident, Alfonsi was driving a black, four-door Ford Focus. She added that he was driving shirtless, despite the temperature being only 40-50 degrees.

Glandon said that, from the mother’s description of the suspect, the St. Clair Shores Police Department was able to help them develop a suspect: Alfonsi, whom they were already looking into as a suspect in a disorderly conduct incident. Not long after they identified Alfonsi as the suspect, St. Clair Shores police observed him driving the same car described by the victim in the Roseville incident.

“They spotted him in the black, four-door Ford the mother had described shortly after the incident occurred and stopped him,” said Glandon, who added that because of paperwork surrounding the incident and probation violation charges at the circuit court level, the department was unable to officially charge Alfonsi until more than a month after the incident.

Alfonsi was charged Nov. 28 with one count of violating the Michigan Sex Offenders Act, a one-year misdemeanor. He was arraigned later that same day in 38th District Court in Roseville and placed in Macomb County Jail, pending a $5,000 cash or surety bond.

Represented by Mark Pellecchia, Alfonsi pleaded no contest to the charge Dec. 5. The court entered a finding of guilty and Alfonsi was sentenced to 68 days, then credited with 68 days. Attempts to reach Pellecchia were not returned at press time.

Despite having finished the sentence from the Roseville charge, Alfonsi is still being held at Macomb County Jail. He pleaded guilty to the disorderly conduct charge in St. Clair Shores and was sentenced to 90 days, which will be up Dec. 23, though he won’t be released from jail then, either.

Alfonsi is awaiting sentencing on additional charges: a failure to register charge out of Clinton Township, where a court date is set for April 2013; and probation violation charges out of Macomb County Circuit Court, which he pleaded guilty to and for which he will be sentenced Dec. 19.

The probation violation charges stem from Alfonsi’s 2007 conviction on three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

In a 2006 case out of Warren, he was charged with the three counts of criminal sexual conduct, one count of delivery of or manufacturing a controlled substance and one count of maintaining a drug house. After the case was bound over to circuit court and Alfonsi pleaded down, the two drug charges were dropped. For the three criminal sexual conduct charges, he was sentenced to time served and five years probation.

This isn’t the first time he’s violated probation. In July 2010, Alfonsi was charged with violating probation, after he was discovered to be in the presence of an 11-month-old child, and in September 2011 and January 2012, Alfonsi violated the terms of his probation by failing to pay supervision fees, court costs and defense fees.

In addition, court documents indicate that, in February 2009, his probation officer expanded the regulations of his probation to restrict Alfonsi’s use, possession and ownership of a computer. However, it is unclear why the terms of his probation were expanded at that time.

Calls to Michael Servitto, the Macomb County prosecutor assigned to the probation violation hearing, were not returned at press time. Alfonsi will appear before Judge James Biernat Jr., of the Macomb County Circuit Court, at 8:15 a.m. Dec. 19.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Sara Kandel at skandel@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1030.