Registered sex offender accused of stalking boy

A 13-year-old boy's quick thinking in copying down the vehicle license plate of a man who had been following him led Nassau police to arrest a registered Level 3 sex offender from Freeport on stalking charges, Nassau police said Friday.

Brian Schlacter, 61, of 71 Overton St., a Level 3 sex .offender who worked as a youth basketball coach in Baldwin before he was jailed in 2002, was arrested at his home shortly before midnight Thursday, police said.

Schlacter had been doing well -- going to counseling and staying out of trouble -- since he was paroled out of an upstate prison in 2005, .according to his mother.

"He's been good," said Irene Schlacter by phone on Friday.

After his arraignment on felony charges of stalking Friday morning, Schlacter was held on bail of $40,000 bond or $20,000 cash and is due back in court on Tuesday.

"This is an innocent situation that was interpreted the wrong way," said Schlacter's lawyer, Richard Vande Stouwe of Mineola.

The Freeport boy had spotted the same man tailing him on three occasions over the past few months, said Det. Lt. Karl Schoepp.

The first incident occurred in January when the boy was walking home from school on Southside Avenue in Freeport and saw a man staring at him and driving slowly behind him for a block, Schoepp said.

Then, earlier this month, the boy was walking home from school again and saw the same man driving next to him and staring at him, Schoepp said.

On April 11, the boy saw the man again while walking with a group of friends and wrote down the license plate number of the man's vehicle, leading police to Schlacter, Schoepp said.

In 2005, Schlacter was paroled after serving 21/2 years after being convicted in the sodomy of another 13-year-old boy who played in a Baldwin church basketball league that Schlacter coached, police said.

The alleged abuse came to light in 2001 when Schlacter attempted suicide by lying on the Long Island Rail Road tracks near the Baldwin .station, but a passerby found him before he was hurt and he was admitted to Nassau University Medical Center's psychiatric unit in East .Meadow, police said.

While he was hospitalized, police learned of the alleged sodomy of the 13-year-old on the Baldwin youth basketball team and charged Schlacter.

Police ask that anyone with information call the First Squad at 516-573-6154.

By BY SOPHIA CHANG |
Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2008

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