Sex offender charged with registration violations in Richmond County

ROCKINGHAM — A convicted sex offender is facing several charges related to registration.

Richmond County Jail records show 47-year-old Jonathan Verneil Cooper was booked on June 27, and is charged with two counts of failing to register as a sex offender and one count of failing to report a new address as a sex offender.

According to the N.C. Sex Offender Registry, Cooper was convicted in 1997 of taking indecent liberties with a child in Montgomery County. Cooper was 19 years old and the victim was 12 at the time of the incident in 1996.

Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show he was also convicted in that case of felony trespassing and felony breaking and entering, and he served nearly 17 months in prison.

The N.C. Sex Offender Registry shows Cooper’s address in Greensboro was last verified by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office on May 9, 2023.

Cooper is being held on a $6,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court July 5.

Records show Cooper has twice been convicted in Montgomery County of failing to register, in 1999 and 2000. His probation on the first was revoked following the second conviction and he was incarcerated for 18 months.

Cooper was first convicted in 1993 of resisting a public officer and communicating threats, then of misdemeanor larceny in 1994

Other prior convictions, all in Montgomery County, include:

• 1996 – resisting a public officer, possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance
• 2003 – resisting a public officer (two counts), communicating threats, interfering with emergency communication, injury to real property
• 2005 – being a habitual felon, felony breaking and entering
• 2014 – six counts of selling a Schedule II controlled substance

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.