When Carlos R. Espinosa-Machado was convicted last summer of indecent liberties with a child in Douglas County, the judge ordered him to register as a sex offender immediately and remain registered for 25 years.

He did that.

Now, Espinosa-Machado no longer appears on the online public sex offender registry — in Kansas or any other state. Why not?

The answer is not available to the public, or at least not readily.

The difference in state sex offender registration laws is one possible explanation, however, and Espinosa-Machado has lived or worked in multiple states since the crime occurred.

Espinosa-Machado has remained free on bond since he was charged in May 2016, including since his conviction. After being pushed back twice, his sentencing date is now scheduled for Thursday before Douglas County District Court Judge Sally Pokorny.

Espinosa-Machado, 35, pleaded no contest and was convicted in August 2017 of one count of indecent liberties with a child and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor for illicit purposes, both felonies.

The crimes occurred from April to May 2016, when Espinosa-Machado was 33 and the victim was 15, according to the charging documents.

Before the plea deal, Espinosa-Machado’s charges were more numerous and more severe: one count of aggravated indecent liberties with the child, two counts of criminal sodomy and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor for illicit purposes, all felonies. He also had been charged with one count of possessing marijuana, a misdemeanor.

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Carlos R. Espinosa-Machado

Because his conviction was in this county, Espinosa-Machado registered as a sex offender with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

However, he neither lived nor worked in Kansas at that time, so he did not appear on the online Kansas Public Offender Registry.

When Espinosa-Machado registered on Aug. 2, 2017, he listed his home address as Virginia, where he’d lived for a year, according to the registration document, which the Journal-World was allowed to view through a Kansas Open Records Act request to the sheriff’s office. He listed his work address as North Carolina, though his employment as a university music professor there terminated following his conviction, the Journal-World previously reported.

On the registration document, the “yes” box is checked next to the question of whether the court determined Espinosa-Machado to be a “sexual predator.”

Espinosa-Machado later appeared on the online Virginia Sex Offender Registry.

The Virginia listing indicated he registered in that state on Aug. 4, 2017, and that his home address was in Reno, Nev. It’s unclear when the Virginia listing was made public and when it was taken down, but it was online in September and November of 2017.

Also last fall, the online U.S. Department of Justice National Sex Offender Search yielded a search result listing for Espinosa-Machado indicating his address was in Reno. However, the Nevada Sex Offender Public Website had no listing for him.

None of the above listings appears online anymore, as of this month.

Instead of, “No offender listed in the statewide registry matches the information provided,” a search for Espinosa-Machado on the Nevada registry yields this message: “The search of the statewide registry has not produced information that is available to the public through the statewide registry.”

Neither the Virginia State Police nor the Nevada Department of Public Safety — the keepers of those states’ respective sex offender registries — would answer whether Espinosa-Machado is or ever was registered in their states. Representatives of both agencies said any information about sex offenders that was not posted on their public websites was shielded from the public.

While every state requires sex offender registration, Kansas’ offender registration laws — which also require public notification for certain violent or drug offenders — are more comprehensive than some.

Nevada, for example, does not publicly disclose all sex offenders who are registered there.

Nevada assigns “tiers” to its offenders and only posts information online about those designated as higher-severity tiers, according to Nevada Department of Public Safety. Under the law, information about lower-tier offenders remains secret from the public.

Espinosa-Machado himself, reached this week via cellphone and email, declined to answer where he has been living or to explain why he does not appear on the national registry. He said he did not want to answer questions without speaking to his attorney.

His appointed attorney in the Douglas County case, Branden Smith, did not immediately respond to messages from the Journal-World on Wednesday.

Espinosa-Machado is a former orchestra director and conductor who previously worked with several Lawrence and regional arts groups. He is a KU alumnus.

The victim told police she’d met Espinosa-Machado on the social media app Hot or Not, though he used a different name and said he was 21, prosecutor Alice Walker said at the plea hearing. After the victim agreed to meet him and told him she was 15, he took her to his parents’ house in Lawrence, where he gave her whiskey and they had sex, Walker said.

Under sentencing guidelines, Espinosa-Machado could face up to 136 months in prison for the indecent liberties conviction and up to 17 months in prison for furnishing alcohol, Pokorny said at his plea hearing.