Charlestown Man, Former City Official, Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography

A well-known Charlestown man admitted in court Monday, Nov. 4 to possessing multiple specimens of child pornography on his laptop computer and portable storage devices seized by Boston Police last year, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

James Mansfield, 48, pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of possession of child pornography for which he was indicted in February. Those indictments, sought by the chief of the DA’s Child Protection Unit, doubled the number of charges Mansfield originally faced after his arrest in October 2012.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball sentenced Mansfield to two-and-a-half years, but suspended the entire sentence for five years. Assistant DA Gloriann Moroney recommended two-and-a-half years in a house of correction with one year to serve and the balance suspended for a five-year probationary period. 

Ball did impose all of prosecutors’ recommended conditions of release, including orders that he register as a sex offender; wear a GPS monitoring device; have no contact with children under 18 except his own children; refrain from using any computer or internet-accessible device; and remain at least 100 feet from a school near his home and at least 1,000 feet from any other school, day-care facility or location where children congregate.

Mansfield was a 28-year city employee of the Boston Transportation Department who was involved in several neighborhood youth activities and the city run community center.

According to Conley, prosecutors were prepared to go to trial, where they would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Mansfield was engaged in online chats discussing sexual activity with young boys. The chats were traced to Mansfield’s iPhone, leading to the execution of a search warrant at his home. 

The evidence would have shown that forensic examinations of Mansfield’s computer and storage devices yielded multiple sexualized images depicting children under 16. Part of the evidence against him was a taped interview with investigators in which he admitted to taking part in the online chats and possessing child pornography.

Also recovered from Mansfield’s computer were photographs of two children under 16 who were known to the defendant. The photographs were not explicit, however, and the criminal charges do not stem from these images. Investigators were able to identify these two children and undertook forensic interviews with both; neither disclosed any inappropriate contact with Mansfield and no evidence of such contact was ever developed during the exhaustive investigation.

“Child pornography is a growing form of criminal activity that depicts the rape and abuse of innocent victims,” Conley said. “Anyone with information on its distribution can file a cybertip with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at www.cybertip.org.