An arrest warrant was
issued for Jesse Helt, 22, when he stopped checking in with his
probation officer for a criminal trespass conviction in November 2011,
said Polk County, Oregon, Community Corrections Director Martin
Silbernagel.
"Reportedly, he has
returned to the Polk County area," Silbernagel said. "We will be
attempting to serve him his warrant, at which time he will be taken into
custody."
Polk County sheriff's
deputies are not actively searching for Helt because of a staff
shortage, but they would arrest him if they encounter him, spokesman
Dean Bender said Wednesday.
Helt took center stage at
Sunday's VMA broadcast to accept the best video of 2014 award "on
behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youths in the United
States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now."
Cyrus, whose "Wrecking
Ball" video was being honored, appeared to be near tears as she watched
Helt, who said he was homeless, read the acceptance speech calling
attention to the large population of homeless young people in Los
Angeles.
I've survived in shelters
all over this city," he said. "I've cleaned your hotel rooms. I've been
an extra in your movies. I've been an extra in your life. Though I may
have been invisible to you on the streets, I have a lot of the same
dreams that brought many of you here tonight."
Along with raising
awareness of the problem of young people living on the streets of Los
Angeles, Helt's story caught the attention of corrections officials in
northwest Oregon, where he grew up and where his mother lives.
If police find Helt, who
some media reports said returned to Salem, Oregon, to visit his mother,
he will be taken before a judge to decide whether he will spend up to a
year in jail or be allowed to resume his probation, Silbernagel said.
Helt was initially
arrested in October 2010 on burglary, criminal mischief and criminal
trespass charges. The burglary count was dismissed, but he was convicted
of the mischief and trespass counts, Bender said.
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