A set of handcuffs sit on a bedside table inside a Muncie, Ind., hotel on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. A former U.S. Army soldier was charged for not registering as a sex offender and lying on his passport. (Mykal McEldowney, IndyStar/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — A 48-year-old ex-Army soldier who was convicted of drugging and raping a juvenile family member is facing federal charges that he failed to register as a sex offender and lied on a U.S. passport application.
From June 2021 until May, Ricardo Marlon Blenman, aka “Ricardo Marlon Thompson, ” allegedly used an alias and lied to evade law enforcement and registering for his sex crimes in Arizona, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
Blenman was born in Panama and became a U.S. citizen in 1990. He is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, after a successful motion by the U.S. Department of Justice to have him held without bail.
Blenman is barred by a state protective order from having any contact with his three children or their mother until Sept. 27, 2027.
In July, the state Department of the Attorney General asked the public for help finding Blenman, a “convicted sex offender who failed to register his address, ” according to a statement.
While stationed on Oahu in 2018, Blenman was accused of sexually abusing a child between 2014 and 2017.
According to federal court records, Blenman was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting the victim four times in Italy and Hawaii. He was convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 2018 of aggravated sexual contact, assault consummated by battery and administering a drug or intoxicant. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Blenman is a “covered sex offender and is required to register under the sex offender registration program ” of any jurisdiction or be included in the National Sex Offender Registry based “on an offense against a minor, ” according to court records.
He moved to Oahu in 2021 and failed to register as a sex offender, at one point listing his ex-wife’s address in Ewa Beach.
He was charged by federal criminal complaint on May 28 with failing to register as a sex offender and making a false statement in application and use of passport. Blenman was arrested June 2 and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday.
On April 7, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security Service was contacted by the state Department of the Attorney General for help revoking Blenman’s passport. He did not have the “conspicuous identifier on his passport, as required, ” according to court records.
“Upon further discussion with an investigator from the Hawaii State AG’s office, it was revealed that on April 13, 2018, Blenman was convicted in a General Military Court Martial for sex crimes he committed in the state of Hawaii and Vicenza, Italy, between 2007 and 2017, ” according to the court records.
The conspicuous identifier is a statement printed inside the passport book of a person who has been convicted of a sex crime against a minor, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
After he was convicted of sexually assaulting the child, Blenman was sentenced to a reduction of rank, to the pay grade of E-1, 36 months confinement and dismissed from the military service with a dishonorable discharge. He was imprisoned at the Joint Regional Correctional Facility, in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Blenman signed a form acknowledging that he was required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act as a sex offender, within 72 hours, in any “state, territory, or tribal nation, in which he will reside, be employed, carry on a vocation, or be a student.”
In April 2021, Blenman, using the last name “Thompson ” signed an International Megan’s Law Notification form with the Puerto Rico Police Bureau acknowledging that he had to register as a sex offender. He did not register, allegedly used a fake address and left Puerto Rico without notice, leading the government to issue an arrest warrant.
On a June 29, 2021, passport application, Blenman allegedly did not mention he used another name and identity. Thompson is the name listed on his birth certificate prior to becoming a U.S. citizen. He has “provided false or misleading information ” to law enforcement officials regarding his “residential addresses on multiple occasions, ” according to the court records.
Blenman was arrested in January 2024 for fourth-degree misdemeanor sexual assault. His next state court appearance in that case is scheduled for July 9.
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