On March 8, 2013, 52-year-old Glen Nobles was accused of failing to register as a sex offender based on a 1989 conviction for attempted sexual assault. On the advice of his defense attorney, Nobles pled guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In 1989, Nobles had been convicted of attempted sexual assault and sentenced to probation. In 1995, he was found to have violated that probation and was sent to prison for four years. He was released but soon sent back to prison on another probation violation. Ultimately, he was released on November 24, 2001.
While in prison after pleading guilty in 2013, Nobles began investigating the sex offender registry laws in Texas and learned that the obligation to register lasts for 10 years and that in view of his history of probation violations and imprisonments, his obligation to register expired in November 2011—15 months before he was accused of failing to register as a sex offender.
In April 2014, Nobles filed a state-court petition for a writ of habeas corpus seeking to vacate his guilty plea. The Sabine County District Attorney’s Office investigated and agreed that in March 2013, when was he was charged with failing to register, Nobles was no longer required to do so.
The prosecution joined with Nobles’ defense attorney in requesting that the conviction be vacated. After the trial court recommended the conviction be set aside, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, on January 14, 2015, vacated Nobles’ conviction saying that “the period during which (Nobles) was required to register as a sex-offender expired on November 24, 2011. (Nobles) was no longer required to register as a sex offender after this date.”
On February 27, 2015, a Sabine County Criminal District Judge signed an order presented by the prosecution dismissing the charge. Nobles was awarded $113,000 and a monthly annuity of $624 in state compensation.
– Maurice Possley
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