Atlantic City sex offender with multiple arrests released from jail

An Atlantic City man with multiple arrests in the past year while on monitoring was released from jail Tuesday.

Corey Cornish, 34, was most recently charged with drug possession, hindering and failure to register as a sex offender.

It was not clear what Cornish's original charge was that made him Megan's Law eligible, but it is at least his third failure to register charge since Aug. 15, 2022, court records show.

Cornish was found last week hiding under a bush and gave his name as Nasir Walker, Assistant Prosecutor Kristina Koerner said during his latest detention hearing.

At that time, he already had nine pending charges and was on the highest level of release.

Cornish scored at the highest risk for both failures to appear and likelihood to commit a new offense under the public safety assessment, which is used to help determine whether a defendant is kept in jail under bail reform.

He failed to appear in court when required five times in the past year, according to the assessment, which recommended Cornish be detained.

Judge Jeffrey Wilson disagreed with that determination, and chose to release Cornish, and denying a separate motion to revoke Cornish's release that was granted last August by Judge Patricia Wild.

The hearing did not mention a December detention hearing, during which Judge William Miller also went against the recommendation to detain and released Cornish.

In that case, Cornish was sought in a domestic violence assault that left his girlfriend with visible bruising to her left eye, according to the police report.

He was found hiding under a mattress in an alley about 40 minutes after he allegedly barricaded a bedroom door and climbed out the fire escape in that Dec. 9 incident, while police questioned his girlfriend.

By the time he had that detention hearing, the woman had told investigators she did not want to pursue charges.

Cornish recently became a father for the fourth time, according to his attorney, Scott Sherwood. It was unclear if the weeks' old child's mother is the woman from incident last year.

Cornish was released from prison in July 2022, after serving time for escaping detention after cutting off his ankle bracelet, BreakingAC previously reported.

During both his detention hearing in December and the one Tuesday, Cornish could be seen holding his hands together several times, appearing to beg the judge for release.

When Wilson granted his released, Cornish — whose camera from the jail was muted — could be seen mouthing, "Thank you."

He will have to register his new address under Megan's Law as part of his release, and will have weekly check-ins with court.