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# Sex offender identified By Daily Press staff
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/sex-offender-identified-by-daily-press-staff/
- Published: 2002-05-17T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:17:18.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

A registered sex offender arrested for suspicious activity in Santa Monica has been identified as 48-year-old Richard Gibbons.

Gibbons was arrested after he was found lurking behind a Santa Monica home watching a child, according to Santa Monica police.

The Department of Justice’s sexual predator apprehension team arrested Gibbons April 20 after a Santa Monica woman witnessed the suspect looking through a fence behind her home on 22nd Street and California Avenue.

She reported the suspicious activity to Santa Monica police and was able to provide the suspect’s license plate number.

With that information, police found Gibbons, a registered and convicted sex offender. The sexual predator apprehension team put Gibbons under surveillance, during which time he was seen talking to two juvenile boys in Santa Monica.

The Department of Justice would not release any information regarding Gibbons or where he resides, despite the fact that California’s open records law requires it.

The Santa Monica Police Department released Gibbons’ name as a courtesy to the public, even though it was not the arresting agency. Santa Monica Festival 2002 to take place Saturday By Daily Press staff

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 17, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051702.pdf?ref=smdp.com)