Boston Man Charged with Failing to Register as a Sex Offender

BOSTON – A Boston man was arrested yesterday and appeared in federal court in Boston for failure to register as a sex offender. 

Lance Pona, 27, was indicted on one count of failing to register as a sex offender. He appeared yesterday before Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings, who ordered Pona held in custody pending a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday, April 12, 2018.

Pona faces a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, a minimum of five years and up to lifetime supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and John Gibbons, United States Marshal for the District of Massachusetts, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Paruti, Lelling’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator and a member of the Major Crimes Unit, is prosecuting the case.

The case is brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.