After report of attempt to lure boy, sex offender arrested

A registered child sex offender who Anne Arundel County police are calling a "person of interest" in a recent attempt to lure a boy into a vehicle in Edgewater has been jailed on charges of violating terms of his parole.

Police said Tuesday that they arrested James David Oliver, 62, on Monday at his Edgewater home, and that he is being held without bail.

On Thursday, a 14-year-old boy told police that while he was waiting at his school bus stop that morning, the driver of a red truck stopped and offered him a ride to school. Police said they questioned Oliver the next day after receiving a report of a suspicious red truck elsewhere in Edgewater.

"He is the individual that we believe was driving in the area and making contact with that child," said police spokesman Justin Mulcahy. He said Oliver was working in the Edgewater area.

That was enough for parole and probation officials to obtain a probation violation warrant for Oliver, said Rick Binetti, a state public safety spokesman. According to court records, a condition of his release in a 2005 case of sexual abuse of a child was not to have contact with minors. He was convicted last month of failing to register as a sex offender.

andrea.siegel@baltsun.com