Level 3 sex offender charged with new crimes

A Level 3 sex offender is the most serious level, meaning that they are at the highest risk to re-offend. It was previously described as the predatory sex offender level.

VanDyke was convicted of sex crimes in Hood River County in 2006 and 2011. He was first convicted of first-degree sex abuse and first-degree sexual penetration when he was about 15; and then in 2011, at age 20, he was convicted of third-degree sex abuse and two counts of first-degree online sexual corruption of a child.

The Oregon State Police is tasked with notifying the public of sex offenders and an OSP official said earlier this year he understood VanDyke moved to The Dalles last January with his wife and family.

A 2014 article in the Hood River News alerted the public that VanDyke had recently been released from prison. It stated he targeted adolescent females, pre-pubescent females and has a handicapped teenage female victim.

Detective Anthony Frasier of the Hood River Police Department said he could not speak to the specifics of VanDyke’s charges.

He did describe what the crimes alleged refer to in general.

“If you’re a level 3 sex offender and you go to somewhere, for example, a schoolground or park where kids congregate, you cannot be there,” Frasier said.

That is in reference to the misdemeanor of being where children congregate.

The felony charge of unlawful contact with a child is described in the law, he said, as being a level 3 sex offender and knowingly contacting a child with intent to satisfy a sexual desire.

According to the state’s sex offender inquiry system, VanDyke may not knowingly be on premises where children regularly congregate, such as schools, child care centers and playgrounds.

Earlier this year, an official with the Oregon State Police said the state decided in 2013 to switch the classification system for sex offenders, and the process is still underway.

At that point in the process, just 2 percent of the state’s 30,000 sex offenders were classified as level 3.