Ernest Frobese, 79, of 109 Concord St., Nashua

NASHUA – Some 25 years ago, a Massachusetts judge ordered retired firefighter Ernest Frobese to register as a sex offender after Frobese was convicted of sexually assaulting a child.

Since then, the now 79-year-old Frobese, who recently moved to Nashua to live with family, has been arrested numerous times for failing to submit the required information to the Massachusetts sex offender registry, and, according to news sources, even a stint in prison didn’t convince him to do so.

Now, Frobese, who in April 2017 allegedly argued in court that he refuses to register because he doesn’t consider himself to be a sex offender, according to a Lowell Sun story, has added Nashua police to the list of law enforcement agencies that have arrested and charged him on failure-to-register allegations.

Nashua police said members of the department’s Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Unit took Frobese into custody last week, after he allegedly told officers he “was not going to cooperate” and “would not sign any paperwork regarding his sex offender status,” police said.

He was booked on one count of duty to report, a Class B felony, then released on personal recognizance bail pending arraignment.

Frobese appeared in Hillsborough County Superior Court-South Thursday, where Judge Charles Temple agreed to continue his bail conditions pending his next court appearance, which is scheduled for Feb. 13.

Frobese, who declined the services of a lawyer or public defender at Thursday’s hearing, produced a document he called a motion, and presented it to the court. The contents weren’t revealed, but Temple accepted the motion.

Meanwhile, Nashua police said they began investigating Frobese about a month ago, when detectives “received information from Brookline police” that he had been living in Nashua for about a year.

When Nashua detectives first went to his residence, according to their reports, they told Frobese that he needed to register within five days.

Frobese allegedly “stated he would not sign the form, and would not register as a sex offender because he already served his time … ,” the reports state.

Eventually, detectives issued a warrant for his arrest and took him into custody.

Frobese’s criminal record goes back nearly 20 years, according to the Lowell Sun. In 2008, after one of his arrests for failing to register as a sex offender, he told a judge his constitutional rights “are being violated constantly … I’m challenging the restraints on my life, liberty and my property,” the Sun story states.

Frobese’s 1995 conviction stemmed from his 1994 arrest for indecent assault and battery on a child. He was sentenced to prison, and served two and a half years.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, or at dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.