Community meeting June 29 regarding Level 3 sex offender moving to Lynnwood

Christopher Lee Shelley

The City of Lynnwood on Friday announced that a community meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, June 29 to discuss a Level 3 sex offender moving into the 5500 block of 176th Street Southwest in Lynnwood.

Christopher Lee Shelley, 34, was convicted of a sex offense that requires registration with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. Shelley has served the sentence imposed on him by the courts, but his previous criminal history places him in a classification level that reflects the potential to re-offend, the city noted.

According to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office website, Level 3 offenders “pose a potential high risk to the community and are a threat to re-offend if provided the opportunity. Most have prior sex crime convictions as well as other criminal convictions.”

“The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and the Lynnwood Police Department have “no legal authority to direct where a sex offender may or may not live,” the announcement said. “Unless court ordered restrictions exist, this offender is constitutionally free to live wherever he/she chooses,” the announcement said.

According to official documents, on Jan. 26, 2001, Shelley pled guilty to second-degree rape of in King County Superior Court and was sentenced  111 months in prison. At the time of his crime, Shelley was 17 years old and his victim was a 12-year-old girl. At the time of this crime Shelley was 17 years old. Prior to that, in March 1995 Shelley was convicted in Snohomish County Juvenile Court of first-degree child rape, with the victims being boys ages 6 and 9 years old. He received a term of 21-28 weeks in a juvenile institution. In April 1995, Shelley was convicted of the crime of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation and was receive a 52-week sentence in a juvenile institution. The victims in this crime were two girls, ages 14 and 15. In all the above cases, Shelley’s victims were known to him.

Shelley also has prior convictions for the following crimes: reckless burning in 1994, second-degree burglary and failure to register in 1995 and residential burglary in 1997. Shelley is no longer on supervision and his only requirement is to register his address, the City of Lynnwood announcement said.

For further information about this or other registered offenders, go to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Offenders Watch website.

The June 29 public community meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29, in the Lynnwood Municipal Court, located on the second floor at 19321 44th Ave. W., Lynnwood.

  1. Ruth Nofchissey says this is a tough one. He needs a place to live and a community if he will succeed at all- His prison term is never over- so we have to think how to integrate him ?

  2. Here is what registering as a sex offender AND allowing public access really does to a community, to a family, to a man\woman… When a man is humiliated by such a process, he now is unable to find work, he and his family will be terminated from their home. He will turn to a life of hard drugs, living in the woods, the house you just moved out of or his car. Now where is Dad? He holding a sign by the freeway….he has been spit on , choked, he hasn’t had a bath or change of underwear in 3 months. He has been degraded, He has served his term. He is now only collecting money for heroin, he is shoplifting daily, robbing your home, your car and he is too ashamed of who he has become to call his 5 year old boy on his birthdays..His mom for mothers day… he cant remember his age … has it been 3 or 4 years ?
    What was his crime………. believing a 14 year old girl when she said she was 18. He was 19. He was a little ‘slow’… He hadn’t experienced drugs or sex until he was 18. Other than what some adults had done to him when he was quite young.
    Hundreds of {mostly} men could be working and providing for their families….. Instead the tax payers are and we are turning them into hard criminals.
    The laws are far too loose for sex offender registry… the ages need to be changed, severity of crime such as violence or forced.
    And gosh dangit women stop blaming and persecuting men for every thing … every thing .. my gosh teach your daughters some morals, self respect, and responsibility.

    yours truly, you’ll love to hate me because i am smart, Sara Leinen

    1. Had this been a 1st offense, I would be more willing to see your side of this. However, he is a repeat offender of the same (or similar) crime.

      While he did do his time, because there is a chance to re-offend, the public needs to be notified.

  3. This is a very sensitive and serious issue with no simple solution. I am so happy to see posts with empathy and logic, but it’s okay to be nervous and upset. I can see this is a very important issue to Sara Leinen. Just a word of advice of something I learned by commenting on Lynnwood today, people have different opinions and it’s okay to disagree with them but they have to be respected. I learned this the hard way when community members were making posts that I thought were vile. I learned I can’t expect people to think like me and I can only hope they listen to me when I state my concerns. Topic like this are tough, let’s keep out the hate, it gets us nowhere where we want to be.

  4. Yes, let’s continue blaming females Sara…go back to the 50’s, your morals are calling you.

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