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Sex Offender Caught In Waukegan

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A gang member wanted for failing to report an address change on his sex offender registration was arrested Wednesday in north suburban Waukegan.

Members of the Lake County Warrants Team located 47-year-old Tracy W. Pennell near a motel near Green Bay Road and Grand Avenue in Waukegan, according to a the Lake County sheriff's office. When officers approached, he ran away and tried to hide behind a building.

He was arrested behind a business in the 600 block of Green Bay Road, the sheriff's office said. Pennell, a documented gang member and convicted sex offender, was wanted on a warrant obtained Sept. 27 by the Zion Police Department for failure of a sex offender to report a change of address.

Pennell, whose last known address was in Zion, was convicted in Lake County of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a 16-year-old victim when he was 34 years old, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry.

He has also been convicted of criminal sexual abuse of a 16-year-old victim, failure to report annually, attempting to violate sex offender registration, and being a sex offender living within 500 feet of a playground.

Pennell is being held at the Lake County Jail on a $100,000 bond, the sheriff's office said. His next court date was scheduled for Oct. 25.

 (Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2017. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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