She has lived in a cardboard box and struggled for years with a heroin addiction. Returning to jail would mean giving up, among other things, her fix, and that is something Karen Diane Hammond does not want to do.
Hammond, 49, who pleaded guilty to having sex with her then 17-year-old son in their former Columbia home three years ago, has eluded Howard County police since late July.
That's when two detectives visited Hammond's Jessup address during a round of surprise checks on every sex offender in the county. The address was a welding business, according to court records.
Of the 76 offenders on whom police checked during the July sweep and the 21 they checked this month, only Hammond has eluded them.
She is the sole gap in Chief Wayne Livesay's unprecedented and voluntary effort to confirm the accuracy of the state's online registry, which anyone can search to learn whether a person has raped, molested or sexually assaulted someone.
"Karen Hammond has been a thorn in our side," said Detective Sgt. Norman C. Snyder, who put about a dozen officers on her case at one point. "We like to catch people. She has multiple warrants, and it's frustrating."
It is up to released sex offenders to register with state or county officials. Failing to do so, or filing a false address, can result in a prison sentence. Detective Cpl. Matthew Tanis has spent much of the past six months reminding Howard County's registered sex offenders of their responsibilities.
"Even die-hard bank robbers don't like these guys," said Tanis, who organized both sweeps. "Everyone wants them in compliance and doing what they're supposed to do. Everybody wants to give information."
A case in Baltimore County in July spurred Howard police to do the checks. Authorities in Baltimore County were searching for a convicted rapist suspected of killing his 13-year-old stepdaughter and then setting fire to their Essex home. The suspect had failed to update his sex offender registration for years. His name was misspelled and no one had gone looking for him.
Livesay wanted his officers doing everything possible to prevent a similar situation in Howard.
"I don't know of any law enforcement agency that has done checks on everyone like this," said Scott Matson, a research associate at the federal government's Center for Sex Offender Management in Silver Spring. "But 100 percent accuracy does not exist, because even if police achieve that today, tomorrow is a very different story.
