Sex offender faces another charge of violating registry

MASON CITY – A violent sex offender now residing in Mason City has been accused of violating the Iowa sex offender registry for the second time since coming to town.

Law enforcement says that Gerald Elton Busch, age 48 and formerly of Spencer, Iowa, but now living in Mason City, violated the Iowa sex offender registry on April 29, 2014, as well as an employment violation. He was arrested, charged and finally released on July 23 to await trial.

Busch is now accused of violating the registry and a no-contact order violation on August 5. He was arrested that day by Cerro Gordo deputies at the Ashley Inn hotel located at 3451 South Federal Avenue. He was soon released, awaiting a hearing on August 15.

Busch is a sex offender not to be trifled with. He stands 6 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 268 pounds. He was convicted in 1987 and 2007 of sex offenses against underage female victims, one of which was 13-years-old or younger. He spent about four years of a ten-year-sentence in the Anamosa State Penitentiary for his 1998 crime and subsequent 2007 conviction; he was sent to prison at that time, and was released in 2011. However, he is currently appealing that conviction and sentence in the Iowa Supreme Court, which already dismissed a previous appeal. The Clay County Sheriff’s Office reported just last October that Busch entered a school property without written permission – unbeknownst to school officials – just one of a number of violations of the Iowa sex offender registry Busch was accused of.

Busch is also a convicted (felon) thief; has committed a number of assaults; forgery; (felony) false reports to law enforcement and other crimes in the Clay, Dickinson and Emmet county areas – as well as the sex crimes in Kossuth and Dickinson counties – before he moved to Mason City.