A mentally ill Grass Valley sex offender arrested earlier this month on suspicion of failing to register was released from jail last week and re-registered Tuesday at the Nevada County Sheriff's Office.

"I hope next time we meet, it will be under better circumstances," Edward Olmstead told Sheriff's Office employees as he prepared to leave after submitting his paperwork.

Olmstead, smelling of urine and wearing a cross around his neck made of two large nails, registered as a transient. He listed his occupation as an evangelist.

As a homeless person, he will have to re-register every 30 days until he gets a permanent residence, in which case he would be required to re-register annually.

Grass Valley Police received second-hand reports earlier this month from high school students that a man fitting Olmstead's description was hiding in bushes near Sierra Mountain High School and Hennessy School and exposing himself.

No witnesses came forward to report seeing him do it, so Olmstead was never charged with indecent exposure.

But police tracked Olmstead down Feb. 8 at a residence on Highway 174 and arrested him for failure to register as a sex offender.

Police said Olmstead failed to re-register within five days of his move from the Highway 174 residence, a violation of California law.

Olmstead's attorney Deputy Public Defender Dan Geffner disputed this, saying Olmstead had moved from the residence fewer than five days before his arrest.

Olmstead was jailed for violating his probation from prior convictions. He remained incarcerated until a hearing Feb. 22, when Deputy District Attorney Charles O'Rourke requested the violation of probation charge be dismissed.

O'Rourke also reduced the failure to register charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, and Geffner's motion to have Olmstead released was granted.

In the meantime, Olmstead is not permitted to stay at the local rotating homeless shelter, Hospitality House, because he is a registered sex offender.

Treatment had helped

Olmstead has been convicted of two assaults on correctional officers in 2000 and 2004 while in jail for probation violations, according to court records.

He was sentenced to state mental hospitals twice, then ordered after his latest release to attend a transitional house for mental health patients in Napa.

At some point, Olmstead moved back to Nevada County, which does not provide any transitional residential program for sex offenders with mental health issues.

Nevada County Behavioral Health Director Michael Heggarty said the transitional Odyssey House in Nevada County does treat the mentally ill on a voluntary basis.

But the facility does not accept sex offender registrants, Nevada County Sheriff's Investigations Administrative Assistant Nancy Anderson said. Anderson oversees the registration of all sex offenders in the sheriff's jurisdiction.

According to court records, a conservatorship was set up for Olmstead in June of 2006 after his return to Nevada County from Napa.

His competency was said to have been "restored" and the conservatorship ended in January of this year.

Olmstead's probation has been reinstated. He is scheduled to appear in Nevada County Superior Court at 1 p.m. March 7 on the misdemeanor charge of failure to register.