CHEROKEE, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have apprehended a 42-year-old man who failed to return to an Iowa sex offender treatment program. The Iowa Department of Human Services announced Friday that U.S. marshals apprehended Cory West on Thursday night at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, motel. Police had been searching for West since Sunday after he didn’t return from his job to the Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offender in Cherokee, Iowa.
The Wapello County Court ordered West into the civil commitment program at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute in 2011. He became eligible for a transition release program last fall. The commitment program provides long-term inpatient treatment for violent sexual predators who have served their prison terms but are considered likely to commit future offenses.
West will remain in custody in Oklahoma pending extradition to Iowa.