Skip to content

Sex offender who fled Canada was allowed across border

SEATTLE — For a few weeks, Michael Sean Stanley managed to cut away from a troubled life in Canada and navigate a bizarre pathway to freedom.

SEATTLE — For a few weeks, Michael Sean Stanley managed to cut away from a troubled life in Canada and navigate a bizarre pathway to freedom.

The sex offender removed his electronic monitoring bracelet, eluded a Canadian manhunt and headed for the border. He was allowed to cross into Washington state, where local authorities told the U.S. citizen to register as a sex offender but didn’t arrest him, since he’d committed no crimes here.

Less than four days after registering, Stanley was accused this week of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old in a Seattle alley in a case that has caused alarm on both sides of the border and exposed a challenging dynamic of cross-border relations.

“This, for us, was the worst-case scenario,” Seattle Police Det. Renee Witt said. “Our worst fear was realized when this kid came forward and said Stanley had attempted to sexually assault him.”

Stanley’s criminal record in Canada dates back to 1987.

The 48-year-old last received a 32-month prison term for assault and forcible confinement involving two mentally challenged boys. Parole Board records say he lured the boys into a washroom, blew crack smoke in their faces and then sexually assaulted them.

Parole records also detail the sexual assault of an elderly woman and charges he exposed himself to kids.

That wasn’t enough to stop him at the U.S. border, because he had already served his time for his violent crimes and was only being sought at the time for charges related to removing his monitoring bracelet. Canadian officials hadn’t sought a provisional arrest warrant that would allow U.S. officials to arrest an American citizen on home soil.

Even once Stanley crossed the border, Canada could have sought such a warrant and Seattle officials could have nabbed him and sent him back, said Gary Botting, a criminal defence and extradition lawyer based in the Vancouver area. But in this case, Canadian authorities didn’t seek that type of warrant or ask for his extradition, saying his crimes weren’t serious enough.

To seek extradition would have been time-consuming and costly. If Stanley was returned and convicted, he likely would have gotten credit for time served in custody and released, Botting said.

It could cost have the Canadian government close to $1 million to accomplish little.

On the U.S. side, a citizen who flees back to his home country must be let back in if there’s no warrant to arrest him, Botting said.

“If he’s an American citizen, he’s home free,” Botting said.

Shayne Saskiw, justice critic with Alberta’s Opposition Wildrose, said some people had argued to leave Stanley in the United States so that Canada didn’t have to deal with him anymore.

“I didn’t feel that was right,” said Saskiw, who pressed the government to seek Stanley’s extradition. “I don’t think it’s fair to one of our close allies — the United States — to dump predators into their areas without, at a minimum, appropriate monitoring systems in place.”