Boston Man Sentenced for Failing to Register as a Sex Offender

BOSTON – A Boston man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for failure to register as a sex offender. 

Lance Pona, 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to one year and one day in prison and five years of supervised release. In June 2018, Pona pleaded guilty to one count of failure to register as a sex offender. Pona has been in custody since he was arrested and charged in April 2018.

Pona is required to register as a sex offender in Massachusetts based on a Colorado state court conviction for unlawful sexual contact in 2009. Following his imprisonment for that conviction, Pona left Colorado for Massachusetts. Despite living in the Boston area for approximately five years, Pona failed to report his presence to the authorities.    

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, prosecuted the case.

The case was 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 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/.