Sex offender seen lurking around Northland middle school faces charges

A sex offender seen trying repeatedly to enter Northgate Middle School in Kansas City, North, has been charged in Clay County with failing to advise authorities of his new address.

Aaron S. Finney, 34, has been living across the street from the school at 2117 N.E. 48th St. since early March, his mother told a deputy sheriff.

Several school staff members told authorities they observed Finney on school grounds Monday. A teacher said she saw Finney trying to open doors on the east side of the school. An assistant principal said he saw Finney trying to open doors near the music rooms.

The safety and security director for the North Kansas City school district said security video captured Finney entering the school’s main doors. He was unable to get farther than the vestibule, but four or five students were in the vestibule at the time.

Finney was convicted of aggravated criminal sodomy in Sedgwick County, Kan., in 1999. He has an arrest warrant out of Cook County, Ill., for a probation violation for failing to register as a sex offender there.

When approached at his mother’s house by a deputy sheriff and Kansas City police, Finney said he had gone to the school because he thought he had seen his dead husband there.

This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Sex offender seen lurking around Northland middle school faces charges."