Cops: Waukegan sex offender on house arrest cut off ankle monitor

A registered sex offender held at a community corrections center in north suburban Waukegan was arrested Friday in Round Lake Beach after cutting off his ankle monitor six days earlier, authorities say.

Cody C. Powell, 21, had been authorized to leave the center Oct. 1, but he never returned, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office. Authorities then received an alert that he had cut off his ankle bracelet.

Powell was spotted Friday going into a store in the 300 block of West Rollins Road in Round Lake Beach, and he was arrested there, sheriff’s police said. He now faces felony charges of escape and criminal damage to government property.

Powell was convicted last year of sexually abusing a 13-year-old victim in Lake County, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, which lists his home address at the Lake County jail in Waukegan. He is now held there on a $150,000 bond, jail records show.