Registered sex offender on probation sentenced to prison

A 48-year-old man was sentenced Thursday by a First Judicial District judge in Kootenai County to 10 years in prison for providing false or misleading information on the sex offender registry.

Michael Wayne Skehan will be eligible for parole after five years, according to the ruling by District Judge Ross Pittman.

Skehan was convicted in 2001 of sexual abuse in an Oregon criminal case, requiring him to register as a sex offender. In that case, Skehan, 22 years old at the time, sexually abused a 14-year-old girl, according to a press release from the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office.

As a sex offender, Skehan must provide truthful information to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office regarding certain things, such as employment status and social media accounts.

In March 2025, Skehan was convicted of failure to update the sex offender registry after failing to immediately notify the KCSO that he had created and maintained a Facebook account, the release said.

Before sentencing in that case, Skehan had also failed to disclose to the KCSO where he worked. Skehan was convicted of this conduct as well and sentenced in both matters in August 2025. Skehan was sentenced to a five-year unified term and placed on probation.

In January 2026, Skehan violated his probation when he was convicted of providing false or misleading information on the sex offender registry. The charges in this case stem from a claim that Skehan again used social media accounts he had not disclosed to the KCSO. 

When asked to produce his phone, Skehan provided officers with a non-working phone to frustrate their investigation. But officers retrieved Skehan’s phone and discovered that he had Snapchat, Nymph, and TikTok accounts he had not disclosed to the KCSO, the release said.

Providing false or misleading information on the sex offender registry is a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.