Scondras pleads guilty to child enticement

Former Boston City Councilor David Scondras, the first and only openly gay man to serve on the council, pleaded guilty to enticement of a child under 16 in Lawrence District Court Aug. 21. The charge stemmed from an incident last October when he was arrested in the parking lot of Day Charter School in Lawrence after allegedly arranging to meet a 15-year-old boy there during an instant message conversation. The man with whom Scondras had been exchanging instant messages was in fact a 20-year-old posing as a 15-year-old, and he alerted police to his conversation with Scondras after arranging the rendezvous.

Judge Kevin Gaffney placed Scondras on probation for 18 months and ordered him to register as a sex offender. As part of the terms of his probation Scondras agreed to turn over his computer to authorities and to refrain from using the Internet during his probation. Gaffney also ordered him not to work with children under the age of 16.
Scondras maintained his innocence during an interview with Bay Windows, stating that he pleaded guilty because of the financial and personal cost of fighting the charges.
"Plea bargains are done not because necessarily people are guilty or not guilty or whatever. They're done for a lot of different reasons," said Scondras. "This trial already cost me $35,000 and I did what I had to do to protect my family."

He claims that the man who he arranged to meet in Lawrence told him his real age during an earlier phone conversation and that Scondras assumed the man was fantasizing when he claimed to be 15 during the instant message conversation.
"You're probably talking to one of very few people in his life who has never enticed anyone under the age of 18, even when he was under 18. ... The whole thing is an effort to prosecute what really is people engaging in fantasies," said Scondras. He said he plans to release a book this spring giving his own perspective about this and other controversial incidents in his career.

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office dismissed other charges against Scondras stemming from the arrest, including assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, larceny under $250, and providing liquor to a person under 21.

Scondras, who served on the city council from 1984 to 1994, was previously charged with indecent assault on a 16-year-old in 1996. The teen alleged that Scondras tried to grope him while they were watching a movie in a Back Bay theater; during the encounter the boy physically assaulted Scondras, who alleged that he was the victim of a gay-bashing. The state declined to prosecute Scondras after the teen vowed not to testify against him.