By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A former Juvenile Justice counselor who admitted to sexually abusing three underage girls in his care at Manhattan Family Court will not get the jail-free sentence he was promised, a judge ordered Monday.
Tony Simmons, 47, was originally promised 10 years probation when he admitted to raping one teen in the elevator of the courthouse on 60 Lafayette St., and forcing sex acts on two other girls in the building in 2005 and 2008.
But after reading a troubling report from the Department of Probation, in which probation officers discussed their interview with Simmons after the plea deal, the judge said Simmons showed "no understanding that his conduct was wrong." He also acted like he did his victims a "favor" by engaging in sexual conduct with them, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Cassandra Mullen said.
His display of depravity "shocks the conscience of this court," the judge added.
After admitting to raping one teen on an elevator, Simmons told probation officers that one victim was "flirting with him and giving him sexual looks," according to the probation report, parts of which the judge read aloud in court on Monday.
Because his probation statements contradicted his admission of guilt, the agency recommended jail time. "Although [Simmons] plead guilty, he failed to take any responsibility for his actions," the department found in its report.
As a result, Simmons revoked Mullen's original plea offer of 10 years probation, and offered him a harsher sentence of three years in prison plus three years probation.
When Simmons rejected the jail-time offer, the the judge ordered his guilty plea invalid and sent the case back to pre-trial preparations.
The judge's handling of the case comes after Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. issued a statement blaming Judge Mullen for the original no-jail plea deal, calling it "an egregious breach of the public's trust" that the she would consent to such an "outrageously lenient" sentence for the admitted rapist.
But court minutes from that Sept. 27 proceeding obtained by DNAinfo revealed that prosecutors did not object on the record to the jail-free sentence in exchange for Simmons' guilty plea that day.
It was not until later that Vance's office realized the assistant district attorney on the case, who left the office after that proceeding, did not object to the sentence for the admitted rapist, a source familiar with the case said.
The prosecutor, Amir Vonsover, then led his supervisors to believe he had tried to stop the deal from going through, the source said. Vonsover has since been removed from the case, and is no longer working with the District Attorney's office, a source said.
Simmons' court appearance Monday took place just yards away from the family court building where he admittedly committed several sex crimes against children.
He will return to court in December to discuss future motions and preparation for trial.
