HOUSTON Authorities have arrested William David Kelley for failure to register as a sex offender. Kelley was sent to prison in 1992 for the aggravated kidnapping of Pam Lychner, in whose memory the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996 and the state jail in Atascocita are named.
Kelly attacked Pam Lychner in 1990. At the time, he was already a twice-convicted sex offender on parole.
After the ordeal, Lychner became an advocate for victims rights and pushed for legislative change at the state and national level. She was a founding member of Justice for All, which started in Houston in 1993.
Lychner also fought for changes to sex-offender registration laws, resulting in the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996. That act established the National Sex Offender Registry, which is used by law enforcement to track certain sex offenders.
Lychner and her two daughters were killed in the 1996 TWA Flight 800 explosion.
In 2006, the Adam Walsh Act was passed by Congress in honor of victims of sex offenders. Lychner was one of 17 victims named in the act, which enhanced provisions of the 1996 act. The Adam Walsh Act made it a federal felony crime to violate sex-offender registration requirements.
Since his release from prison in August of 2010, Kelly has been required to register as a sex offender with the Harris County Sheriff s Office every 90 days.
But since May of 2011, he has failed to do so, investigators said.
Deputies launched an investigation and learned that Kelley had moved from his last registered address. Charges were filed, and an arrest warrant was issued.
Kelley was arrested on January 26, 2012, in the 14300 block of Lee Road.
He was being held in the Harris County Jail Friday without bond.
