A Black man was taken into police custody after being on the run for nearly a year. Authorities say they were looking to arrest him as a sex offender. You’d never believe the lengths police say he went to avoid making that list.
Arizona authorities say 50-year-old Benjamin Hollis was registered as a sex offender in California over 20 years ago. After moving to Arizona City in 2018 to seemingly start a new life, Hollins took up the occupation of a behavioral health counselor, per PEOPLE.
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However, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office accused Hollins of kidnapping a 16-year-old client and attempting to molest her.
He pleaded guilty to the crime but in exchange, he received supervised probation instead of prison time. The other caveat to that agreement was a requirement to register as a sex offender...annually.
Unbeknownst to the police, Hollins allegedly had other plans to go off grid.
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Instead, authorities allege, he convinced a woman to file a false report in order to fake his own death in 2023.
“Now a lot of resources were wasted looking for his body, which was clearly not found because he wasn’t dead,” Sheriff Lamb says in his recorded statement.
Believing that Hollins was still alive, on Tuesday, Chandler Police detectives tracked him down to a home in Mesa, Ariz., where he was allegedly living under a fake name with a family with young children, per the sheriff’s office, which said the family “had no idea about his history.”
SWAT team members arrested him, booking the sex offender into the Pinal County Detention Center later that day.
Sheriff Mark Lamb said Hollins appeared “surprised” to see the swarm of officer corner him in.
“Nice try, Benjamin. We found you: you’re not dead. We’re gonna hold you accountable,” Lamb said in a statement.
Hollins is due back in court Tuesday. It’s unclear if he’s retained a lawyer.
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