Last modified: Friday, March 21, 2008 1:39 AM EDT John Freitas, registered sex offender (Staff photo by ) Wanted NA sex offender turns self in BY DAVID LINTON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF NORTH ATTLEBORO - A local man on the state's 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders List surrendered Thursday afternoon and was being held at the police station on $25,000 cash bail. John J. Freitas, 54, turned himself in at the Attleboro District Court before local detectives took the Level 3 sex offender into custody for booking at the police station. Freitas's move followed a media blitz by law enforcement officials earlier this week seeking information to his whereabouts. Freitas, who was added to the state's 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders List on Monday, was the subject of a search by local detectives and the State Police Violent Fugitive unit. Level 3 sex offenders are considered by the state to be the most likely to commit new sex crimes. North Attleboro Detective Lt. David Dawes said Freitas was wanted by local police on a warrant for failing to register as a sex offender. Police obtained a warrant after a routine audit of local sex offenders revealed Freitas allegedly failed to register, Dawes said. Various media outlets, including The Sun Chronicle, carried news of Freitas's name being added along with four other men to the state's 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders list. Freitas, who has been living in North Attleboro for several years, had given the Pineapple Inn on Route 1 as his address. He told police he was homeless and was staying most recently in Rhode Island, Dawes said. He is also formerly of Emory Street in Attleboro. "He realized sooner or later he was going to be caught," Dawes said. Dawes, along with detectives John Reilly, Michael Elliott and Daniel Arrighi, had been working with the state police to track Freitas down. Freitas was convicted of rape of a child and indecent assault in the late 1970s in New Bedford. He was convicted again in 1985 in New Bedford Superior Court where he was sentenced to a 5- to 7-year prison sentence for similar charges, police said. Failing to register as a sex offender is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, Dawes said. Freitas was scheduled to be arraigned today in Attleboro District Court.