The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office prepared for the Halloween holiday by conducting sex offender compliance checks this weekend, making contact with a dozen offenders, the office said.  

On Saturday, detectives carried out compliance checks in Greenfield, Prunedale, Gonzalez, King City, Royal Oaks, Castroville, Pajaro, Carmel and Salinas.  

Such checks monitor people who have been convicted of a sex crime who are supposed to be registered in a database. In a compliance check, law enforcement visits the sex offender’s home, school or place of employment to ensure that they are up to date with their registration.  

A total of 12 registered sex offenders or parolees were contacted resulting in four arrests, the Sheriff’s Office said.  

Three offenders were found to have violated their parole: Mathew Virak, who lives in the 2000 block of San Miguel Canyon Road in Prunedale; Charles Bailey, who lives in the 33000 block of Gloria Road in Gonzales, and Stefan Hudson, who lives in the 60 block of U.S. Highway 1 in Carmel.  

One offender, Michael Navarro, who lives in the 11500 block of Main Street in Castroville, was taken in after he was allegedly found with an unregistered 9mm handgun in his vehicle as well as counterfeit oxycodone pills and cannabis for sale. He was booked into jail on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of a controlled substance for sale, having a controlled substance while being armed, possession of a firearm in a vehicle and having an unlocked firearm in a vehicle. 

All subjects are being held with no bail. 

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.