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Juvenile Justice Counselor Gets Four Years for Molesting Teens

By DNAinfo Staff on February 1, 2011 11:48am  | Updated on February 1, 2011 1:35pm

By Shayna Jacobs

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Former juvenile justice counselor Tony Simmons was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday, the maximum allowed under the law, for molesting two teens he was supposed to be counseling in Family Court.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman hinted she might have considered giving Simmons a harsher sentence, but said her hands are tied by the current laws that max out at four years.

"That's up to Albany — none of my business really," Berkman said.

Berkman slammed Simmons for carrying out a string of sex attacks in 2005 and 2008, including sexually abusing two teens in a common room area while they waited for their courtroom appearances.

A jury took less than a day to convict him on those charges, but acquitted him on charges that he raped a 15-year-old in a courthouse elevator. The jury was not privy to information that Simmons pleaded guilty to all of the incidents in November in exchange for a deal that would give him no prison time and 10 years probation.

That deal was revoked after criticism from Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. and some victims' rights groups.

State law allows a maximum sentence of four years in prison for defendants convicted of a criminal sex act in the third degree, regardless of whether they assaulted adults or children.

Judge Berkman blasted Simmons, 47, who worked for the city's Department of Juvenile Justice for 16 years, for targeting victims that were unable to defend themselves.

"These complainants were young. They were vulnerable. They had come from backgrounds which had failed them in some ways," Berkman said. "Mr. Simmons, I guess, from all I can see, entertained the notion that these girls wanted him."

Simmons, 47, said "no" when asked if he wanted to speak at his sentencing. Neither of his victims were present in court Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Simmons used his size and authority to intimidate the girls into submission, one of whom had started working as a prostitute at age 13.

Tony Simmons, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday.
Tony Simmons, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday.
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DNAinfo/John Marshall Mantel

"You have a 200 pound-plus [man] who has the ability to shackle and handcuff and he starts groping her," Assistant District Attorney Evan Krutoy said of Simmons' advances, "That is not what that kid would expect in that setting but this is what she got."