The Portland Police Department executed a sting operation on Thursday that led to the arrest of the homeless lifetime sex offender registrant, Jessie J. Gehrmann, 38, for allegedly trying to sell a stolen GPS system.
Police responded to Union Wharf on Tuesday after receiving a report of a GPS system having been stolen from a ship docked there.
After an investigation, officers determined that the GPS had been stolen between May 9 and 13, and then they found an advertisement for the sale of the stolen item online.
Officers responded to the ad and arranged a meeting with Gehrmann, ostensibly to purchase the device. Officers arrived and arrested Gehrmann without incident.
Gehrmann faces charges of theft by receiving stolen property, which is a felony for him due to a prior conviction, and charges for violating probation conditions.
Gehrmann was previously convicted in 2016 for sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl in 2006, an assault that went unreported until the victim’s mother came forward nine years later, in 2015, after the victim had become able to confide in her about it, records show. This is common in such cases.
Strangely, though, while Gehrmann was sentenced to seven year in prison when he pleaded guilty to the heinous sexual assault, all but one year of that sentence was suspended.
