By Jason C. Mattox

A Sardis man remains in jail charged with three counts of child molestation, according to records of the Panola County Sheriff’s Department.

Michael Clay Saripkin, 51, (aka Levine Saripkin, Thomas Henley and Michael Clay Levine), 304 E. Lee St., Sardis, was arrested Wednesday morning just before law enforcement officers began searching his residence.

Investigator Mark Whitten of the Panola County Sheriff’s Department said several items were seized from the property and entered into evidence.

Saripkin is a registered sex offender for two counts of felony statutory rape. He served four years in a Tennessee prison before being released in 2002.

Saripkin’s background also includes arrests for third degree burglary in 1982 and 1983, and sexual battery in 1988 and 1990, according to the Interstate Identification Index (III), a record that compiles offenders’ arrest histories.

The latter sexual battery arrest shows the County Correction Center in Memphis as the arresting agency, according to the III.

In April 1997, Saripkin was arrested in Jackson, Tennessee and charged with two counts of aggravated rape male by male, the last charge before his felony arrests in 1998.

Saripkin is being held without bond due to his previous convictions, District Attorney John Champion said.

Saripkin’s current charges stem from alleged contact with a pair of teenage brothers, 16 and 17, according to Whitten.