MACON COUNTY — A registered sex offender from New Cambria was arrested this week on a felony charge after a Macon County sheriff’s deputy found him mowing a lawn within 500 feet of the New Cambria Public Park, court records show.
Mark Alan Stephenson, 42, of 13685 State Highway Z, New Cambria, was charged April 22 in Macon County Circuit Court with one count of being a sex offender physically present or loitering within 500 feet of a public park with a playground, a Class E felony, and one count of being a sex offender present or loitering within 500 feet of a school, a Class A misdemeanor. The case is 26MA-CR00118.
A Macon County judge issued a warrant the same day and set bond at $10,000 cash only. Stephenson was subsequently arrested on the warrant, and a bond hearing has been set.
According to the probable cause statement filed by Sgt. Aaron Magers of the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched at about 10:17 a.m. on April 19 to 112 Section Ave. in New Cambria on a report that Stephenson, a registered sex offender, had been seen mowing grass at the address. The property sits directly across from the New Cambria Public Park, which contains playground equipment.
Magers reported that when he arrived, the lawn had just been mowed; grass clippings were on the sidewalk, in the roadway, and clumped across the yard, and the smell of fresh-cut grass hung in the air. Magers wrote that he later located Stephenson and measured the distance from where Stephenson had been standing to the park at 210 feet.
Stephenson told the deputy he had not mowed the property and that his wife had done the mowing, according to the report. Magers wrote that video and photos attached to the report show Stephenson mowing.
Court records indicate that on June 2, 2014, Stephenson pleaded guilty in Adair County to attempted statutory sodomy in the first degree for attempted deviant sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 14. That plea triggered lifetime sex offender registration under Missouri law, and under Sections 566.149 and 566.150 RSMo, prohibits him from being present or loitering within 500 feet of schools, public parks with playgrounds, public swimming pools, or museums.
A Class E felony in Missouri is punishable by up to four years in prison, up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or a combination. A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $2,000, or both.
The case is being prosecuted by Macon County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Meisner.
The charges are allegations. Stephenson is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.