MILLINOCKET – Penny Kerwock was just getting home Saturday night when she saw a notice posted near her home at 348 Katahdin Ave. The notice said that a convicted sex offender was living at her home.

Penny’s brother, Scott Kerwock, is a convicted sex offender who served six months at Penobscot County Jail and drew four years’ probation for molesting an underage teenage girl, a fact duly noted, along with her address, in a weekly Millinocket newspaper last week.

But there’s one problem, Penny Kerwock said Tuesday: Scott hasn’t lived with her for 15 years.

“I didn’t know he was out of jail. I thought he was still on the run. I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know if he was dead or in jail,” Penny Kerwock said Tuesday. “I don’t know where he is.”

Kerwock, a pastry cook who first noticed the signs Saturday night, said she finds the public attention drawn to her and her home deeply upsetting.

Neighbors “have a good cause. I am not arguing that point,” she said, “but they knew the cops were investigating, and they should have waited for the investigation to end before they put them [the signs] up. They should have waited until the police did their investigation to find out if I knew anything about this. I was clueless.

“I don’t even dare to go to the stores right now. I just don’t dare to,” Kerwock said. “I am tired of people staring at me and accusing me if they don’t even know. Even my neighbors have called the police asking if he is living here.”

Scott Kerwock apparently does not live with his sister, state police said Tuesday, and might be living out of state, but investigators are awaiting word from Millinocket police or a signed letter from Kerwock, which she said was sent Monday, before they can change the Web site listing.

Such investigations and listing changes usually take a week or two, said Donna Cote, supervisor of the sex offender registry at www.maine.gov/sor.

Millinocket Detective Jon Glidden, who is handling the investigation, was off Tuesday. Police Chief Donald Bolduc could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Patrolman Ron McCarthy said he was working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

“I assured her that we will do everything we can,” McCarthy said.

According to officials at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor, Scott Kerwock has not been incarcerated since at least 2002. The address listing on the site is listed as last verified on Sept. 16.

Incorrect sex offender addresses are very rare, said state police Lt. Thomas Kelly, commanding officer of the state police Bureau of Identification, which manages the Web site listing. The site lists about 1,684 registered sex offenders, with another 500 due to be entered thanks to a recent amendment to state law requiring listings to date convictions that occurred after Jan. 1, 1982.

“It’s happened once or twice before,” Kelly said Tuesday. “Sometimes we do find out that addresses are inaccurate. We’re only made aware of it if someone brings it to our attention.”

Anyone who knows of an incorrect listing is asked to call state police at 624-7270 and their local police department. Local police typically investigate fraudulent address claims, Kelly said.

Anyone charged with knowingly listing an incorrect address can face prosecution for violation of registry law, a Class D misdemeanor, Kelly said.

Penny Kerwock said she wouldn’t mind seeing her brother get arrested again for incorrectly listing her address.

“When he was arrested he came over to my house to tell me and he needed bail money, and unfortunately I did bail him out, but he jumped bail and I lost my money,” she said. “I have not seen him since.”

“I never had sympathy for him,” she added. “I love my brother, but I have no respect for my brother for what he did. It was wrong.”