AUSTIN, Texas — A now-former employee of the University of Texas at Austin was recently arrested for failing to register as a sex offender, according to court documents obtained by KVUE.
An affidavit states that on Sept. 5, an anonymous report came into the University of Texas Police Department (UTPD) that 35-year-old Nicholas Kelly Clisby, a registered sex offender out of Oregon, was working on campus under a fake name. The caller said police should look under the name Sabathia.
UTPD discovered that an employee named Nicholas Clisby-Sabathia had been working for the university since June. A report from The Daily Texan, the university's student-run paper, states that Clisby worked as a human resources employee at the McCombs School of Business.
Digging further, UTPD discovered that Nicholas Kelly Clisby is a registered sex offender out of Oregon, stemming from a 2014 conviction for felony distribution of child pornography.
UTPD determined that the employee Clisby-Sabathia and Clisby were the same person and after checking both UTPD and Austin Police Department records, confirmed that Clisby had not registered as a sex offender with either law enforcement agency.
On Sept. 6, the affidavit states that a UTPD officer contacted a detective with the Portland Police Department's Sex Offender Registration Unit, who confirmed that Clisby is a registered sex offender who reports to that office. The detective said Clisby reported in-person for his annual registration on Aug. 9. The detective said Clisby told her he was living and working in Portland and made no mention of leaving Oregon or working anywhere else.
The UTPD officer contacted the university's Human Resources Department and confirmed that Clisby is a full-time employee with an address in Austin. Human Resources also reported to the officer that "Clisby made no mention of being a registered sex offender and knowingly provided them with a fictitious name," according to the affidavit.
The Daily Texan's report states that Clisby was convicted in Portland in 2014 for using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, but later that year, the charge was amended to "attempting to commit a Class A felony." Clisby allegedly said he believed his conviction was overturned, so he didn't have to register in Texas.
An order of commitment from the Travis County Sheriff's Office confirms Clisby was arrested on Sept. 6. He faces a charge of failure to register, a third-degree felony in Texas, and is scheduled to appear in court later this month.
A UT spokesperson told The Daily Texan on Sept. 11 that Clisby was fired when the university learned of his sex offender status and failure to register.
