By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
A MAN convicted in Alaska nearly two decades ago of sexually abusing a minor is scheduled to be sentenced in September after pleading guilty in federal court to failing to register as a sex offender while living in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Stephen Edward Albright entered a guilty plea on June 22 before Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona to one count of failure to register as a sex offender, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 25 at 9 a.m. in the District Court for the NMI.
According to the plea agreement, Albright is required to register as a sex offender because of a 2005 Alaska conviction for third-degree sexual abuse of a minor, for which he received a five-year sentence with 42 months suspended. Under federal law, he is classified as a Tier II sex offender, requiring him to maintain his registration for 25 years and appear in person every six months to update his information.
Federal prosecutors said Albright stopped reporting to the CNMI Department of Public Safety’s Sex Offender Registry in 2022. DPS officers arrested him in March of that year for failing to update his registration and appear for verification, but the CNMI Superior Court dismissed the case without prejudice after he signed an acknowledgment of his registration obligations.
In early 2023, Albright told DPS he planned to relocate to Honolulu and presented a one-way ticket as proof. Instead, he remained in the CNMI and did not report to the registry again, according to the plea agreement.
A federal grand jury indicted him in September 2024. By that time, prosecutors said, Albright had traveled in interstate and foreign commerce without updating his registration as required under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Albright was arrested in Brownsville, Texas, on April 29, 2026, on a warrant issued in the NMI. He waived identity and detention hearings in the Southern District of Texas and was ordered transported to Saipan for prosecution.
During the June 22 change-of-plea hearing, Albright confirmed that he had reviewed the indictment and plea agreement with his attorney, Mark Scoggins. He described the offense in his own words, and the court found that he was competent and that his plea was knowing and voluntary. The court vacated the previously scheduled August 2026 jury trial and ordered the plea agreement unsealed.
Albright faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release. The federal government has agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the applicable guideline range.
He remains in federal custody pending sentencing.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
