PLEA TO LESSER CHARGE IN UNDERAGE-SEX CASE

Stephen Simmons, 46, was indicted earlier this year on charges of third degree sodomy, third degree sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of a child and five counts of possessing sexually explicit images of a child.  The case fizzled out Thursday in a Riverhead courtroom when he pleaded guilty to possessing a picture of his then underaged boyfriend committing a sex act.   The child in question, Sam Manzie, now 18, had sodomized and killed an 11 year old boy in his New Jersey hometown.  Simmons and Manzie met in an AOL chat room in 1996.  Simmons was convicted of sodomy in New Jersey and is serving a 5 year sentence there.  Manzie refused to testify against him there and in Suffolk.  As a condition of the plea bargain, Simmons is required to register in New York State as a sex offender under Megan's Law.  His previous New York conviction predated that law, so his Holbrook neighbors were unaware he was a convicted pedophile.

(Riverhead, New York)