Two registered sex offenders living at a house owned by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have been arrested after a probation officer found a 17-year-old girl visiting there during a routine check.

Officer Brian Weigel stopped at the house at 223 S. 14th St. Friday afternoon for an "unannounced, surprise home visit," which he said is routine at the home. A 17-year-old girl was at the house.

"She was there on her own free will," Weigel said.

Geoffrey Miller, 24, was charged Monday with corruption of a minor, a Class Cfelony. He also faces a petition for revocation of probation on a previous gross sexual imposition conviction. South Central District Judge Sonna Anderson set bond for Miller at $50,000 cash.

Weigel said Miller is alleged to have had sexual contact with the 17-year-old girl. He said the girl does not live in the neighborhood around the DOCR house, and she and Miller met at a different location.

The DOCR rents the home and allows homeless sex offenders to live there until they can find a place to live. Weigel said the offenders living in the home are placed under the highest level of security, which includes unannounced visits such as the one on Friday.

Miller and the girl had been seeing each other for about a week, Weigel said. Had Miller not been living in the house, the relationship may not have been discovered for a much longer time.

"It actually shows how this house is working to stop sexual offenses," he said.

Another man living at the home also was arrested. Kyle Hammond, 20, was arrested for a probation violation, Weigel said. He said Hammond is on probation for a failure to register a conviction in McLean County, and he is not supposed to have contact with juveniles. He was in the presence of the 17-year-old girl, so he was arrested for the probation violation, Weigel said.

He is being held in the Mercer County jail, according to the North Dakota attorney general's sex offender Web site.

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