9/12/14 - A court has denied an appeal by a Tyrone Township man found guilty of failing to register as a sex offender. A Livingston County Circuit Court jury acquitted 43-year-old Timothy Andrew Pickett of accosting a child for immoral purposes last year, but found him guilty of the lesser charge of failing to register as a sex offender. He was sentenced to serve between 14 months and 6 years and was imprisoned until April of this year, at which time he was released on parole. He sought to overturn the conviction with the Michigan Court of Appeals, claiming there was insufficient evidence that he had failed to update his address. He also claimed he had insufficient defense counsel and prosecutorial misconduct. The court this week disagreed on all three counts and upheld the conviction and sentence. Pickett was initially charged with trying to inappropriately touch the 14-year-old daughter of his girlfriend in January of 2012. The defense maintained the teen made up the story to keep her mother and Pickett apart, and a jury found him not guilty of accosting the girl. But during the trial, police testified Pickett waited three weeks to change his address when he moved from Brownstown Township to Tyrone Township. (JK)
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