By JAMES PRICHARD
The Associated Press
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A convicted sex offender who walked away from a prison work detail in the Upper Peninsula in 1970 has been arrested outside his Milwaukee home, federal officials said Thursday.
Roger Allen Chipman, 69, was being held in a Milwaukee jail pending his return to Michigan to serve out the remainder of his prison term, according to a release issued by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Chipman was sentenced in Kent County in 1968 to a prison term of five to 10 years after being convicted of taking indecent liberties with a minor. He escaped in 1970 while staying at what now is called the Marquette Branch Prison.
Marshals said Chipman initially denied his true identity when they caught up with him but later admitted who he was after being confronted with fingerprint evidence and his old prison photograph.
He used the name Roger Hansen when he was arrested in 1995 in Milwaukee for first-degree criminal sexual assault of a child, marshals said. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and released in 2004.
Chipman’s girlfriend was with him at the time of Wednesday’s arrest and said she did not know his true identity or about his escape more than 37 years ago.
A message seeking comment from Chipman was left at the Milwaukee County Jail on Thursday.