A Berkeley Springs man convicted of second-degree rape in 1997 in Washington County was arrested on February 25 for failure to register as a sex offender.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Morgan County Magistrate Court by Trooper B.A. Meyers with the West Virginia State Police, information was received about a man who is a registered sex offender having a dating profile.
The man, identified as James R. Yost, 47, was living on Sandmine Road, where officers arrived on Saturday and got verbal permission to go through Yost’s phone.
Police reportedly found Yost had accounts on 12 separate dating sites including Tinder, Match, eHarmony and others, with his picture and a wireless phone number not matching his registry.
Yost was arrested and charged with 15 counts of failure to register as a sex offender, based on the 12 dating sites, two Facebook profiles and the unregistered wireless phone. He remains incarcerated at Eastern Regional Jail awaiting a hearing.
