A convicted sex offender who has not registered with the state sex offender registry was arrested Thursday in Bismarck.

Peter Skaro, 48, was charged Friday in South Central District Court with failure to register as a sex offender, a Class Cfelony. He also is facing the same charge in East Central District Court, said Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Brandi Sasse Russell.

At Russell's request, South Central District Court Judge Sonna Anderson set bond for Skaro at $10,000 cash. If released on bond from the Burleigh County Detention Center, Skaro is not allowed to possess or consume alcohol, Anderson said.

Russell said Skaro has prior convictions for failure to register as a sex offender. She said he also has a long criminal history, including several assault convictions and a gross sexual imposition conviction.

According to court documents, Skaro was convicted in Barnes County in August 2004 of failing to fulfill a sexual offender registration requirement. He was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail with credit for 46 days served and one year unsupervised probation. The documents say he was allowed work release during his sentence.

In December 2004, Skaro was convicted in Cass County of failure to register as convicted offender, according to court documents. He was sentenced to 365 days in the county jail with 275 days suspended and one year unsupervised probation. The sentence ran concurrently to the Barnes County conviction.

A first conviction for failure to register as a sex offender is a Class A misdemeanor, and any subsequent charge after the conviction is a Class C felony. Class C felonies are punishable by up to five years in prison and fines of up to $5,000.

Burleigh County Sheriff's Capt. Collin Rixen said the sheriff's department recently learned Skaro was attending United Tribes Technical College and should be registered as a sex offender.

Rixen said Skaro was wanted on a felony warrant for failure to register as a sex offender out of Cass County. Skaro was charged with Class C felony failure to register as a sex offender in Cass County on Aug. 2, and a warrant was issued for his arrest the next day, according to court documents.

Skaro was arrested at his girlfriend's home on East Thayer Avenue in Bismarck,Rixen said.

He said Skaro has been in the Bismarck area since at least Aug. 31, when he came to UTTC. Skaro has a room at the college outside of Bismarck but also stays at his girlfriend's home in Bismarck sometimes, Rixen said.

Dennis Neumann, UTTC public information director, said Skaro enrolled as a student for the fall semester. He said Skaro was living on campus for a while but hasn't been at that location for about a month.

He said UTTC policies prohibit people facing sexual assault charges from attending the college, and the school was unaware of Skaro's charges and past convictions.

According to court documents, Skaro had a Fargo address in November 2004 when he was picked up in Bismarck for driving under the influence, his fourth offense in seven years.

Documents say Skaro had an address on the 2400 block of Thayer Avenue in August 2005 when he was arrested in Bismarck for driving under suspension.

Skaro was convicted in September of the driving under the influence and the driving under suspension charges, documents say.

According to the North Dakota attorney general's sex offender Web site, Skaro was convicted of gross sexual imposition in April 1990 in Grand Forks County. The Web site said he served 10 years for the offense and is considered a moderate-risk offender.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)