Sex offender recorded kids with camera sunglasses at Boston's Frog Pond, police say
A registered sex offender was arrested Tuesday for allegedly using camera sunglasses to secretly record children at the Boston Common Frog Pond last week, authorities said.
Mark Sullivan, of Brockton, was ordered held on $250,000 bail at a court hearing, where a prosecutor detailed what happened and the 60-year-old’s lengthy record.
People at Frog Pond on Friday “yelled at him, asking him why he was recording kids. The defendant tried to run away and fell near the park, where officers then found him,” the prosecutor said.
Boston police officers and U.S. Marshals arrested the 60-year-old around 6 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant out of Boston Municipal Court for photographing sexual or intimate parts of a child, according to police.
The arrest stems from an incident on Friday afternoon, when Boston police responded to a radio call to investigate a person in the area of the Boston Common Frog Pond. When they arrived, officers spoke with a witness who said he had seen an unknown man arguing with Sullivan, officials said.
Officers spoke with multiple witnesses who said Sullivan was recording children in the playground using sunglasses with a camera installed in them. Witnesses told police that he also used his cellphone to record the children.
Additional witnesses said Sullivan used the glasses to record a family who was attempting to change their children, who were wrapped in a towel for privacy. When the family attempted to move due to Sullivan’s behavior, he followed them, scanning the children up and down with the camera sunglasses, police said.
Witnesses confronted the man, who removed the sunglasses and tried to break them with his hands, police said. When officers observed the damaged glasses in Sullivan’s hands, he said that he had been confronted by a group of individuals who pulled the glasses off of his face and assaulted him.
Police said they were unable to immediately locate the victims, as they were no longer at the pond. Sullivan’s glasses and cellphone were seized by police.
Police said they later discovered that Sullivan was registered under the sex offender registry, and prosecutor said later Tuesday in Boston Municipal Court that Sullivan’s record includes multiple prison sentences for child pornography charges, most recently one for 10-15 years.
“He’s a habitual offender,” the prosecutor said. “Clearly, state prison time has not deterred Mr. Sullivan from partaking in this inappropriate and quite disturbing conduct.”
She had asked for $100,000 cash bail, while Sullivan’s attorney had sought $1,000. The judge ultimately decided to make the bail a quarter of a million dollars, citing Sullivan’s “bad” record, though he said that if no evidence is produced from the sunglasses record, he could lower the bail.
Should he make bail, Sullivan will be under house arrest, have to turn over electronic devices and can’t go to downtown Boston or contact anyone involved in the case.
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