From the 11/23/2005 Poughkeepsie Journal

Millbrook man charged in murder of New Paltz woman
Suspect was a registered sex offender

By Nik Bonopartis
Poughkeepsie Journal

NEW PALTZ — A Millbrook man who is a registered sex offender has been accused of killing a former girlfriend and then setting her apartment on fire, New Paltz and state police said at a joint press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Michael G. Curtis, 43, of Woodstock Road, is being held without bail in the Ulster County Jail on charges of second-degree murder.

He stands accused of killing Robin Conroy, 29.

Conroy was found dead Tuesday inside a burned out apartment at the Town & Country condominium complex on Huguenot Street in New Paltz. Police say Curtis set the apartment on fire. Several other apartments were destroyed and one section of the complex was condemned after the fire, leaving several people homeless.

Police said Curtis had sexually assaulted Conroy’s mother earlier this year and was facing charges of third-degree rape. He had been released from Ulster County Jail, but it was not immediately clear if he had posted bail.

Curtis is a Level 3 sex offender. He was convicted in September of 1990 of first-degree attempted rape and second-degree assault after he sexually assaulted a woman and beat her with a rock in a hayfield off Woodstock Road, where he lives.

As a Level 3 sex offender, Curtis was subject to a nightly curfew, a strict ban on alcohol and mandatory mental health counseling.