By AMANDA HOFFMANN
"Our official reaction is that [Sinclair] will be notified of his impending firing today," the Town of North Hempstead's spokesman, Collin Nash, said on Jan. 2.
Sinclair, who lives with his elderly mother in Oceanside, started his $100,000-a-year job with North Hempstead on Dec. 8. According to police, he had begun corresponding with the 16-year-old girl on the Internet at least a month earlier. He met the girl twice at a Lynbrook motel in November and December, officials said.
"He basically met her online and questioned her about her age, and she assured him she was 18, which obviously was not the truth," said Lt. Richard Zito, who heads the Nassau County Police Department special victims unit.
Zito explained that state law defines statutory, or third-degree, rape as sexual intercourse with someone under age 17. "Ignorance is no excuse," he said. "Even though she told him she was 18, that's not a defense when it comes time to prosecute him."
The alleged affair came to light after a traffic stop on Dec. 30. A Nassau County police officer spotted the couple in the parking lot of the Plantation Motor Inn in Island Park during a routine patrol, and followed when they hastily drove off. The officer eventually pulled Sinclair over for speeding.
The teenager, whose name was not released, repeatedly lied to police about her age, officials said, and was given a desk-appearance ticket. When questioned, police said, the girl admitted to taking a train to meet Sinclair after arranging encounters on the Internet. They had sex at the Capri Motel in Lynbrook on Nov. 22 and Dec. 13,
according to police.
Sinclair, who had no prior arrests, was arraigned in First District Court and held without bail.
"If he is convicted of that charge, odds are he would be classified and have to register as a sex offender," Zito said. "Sinclair could take a plea to a lesser charge and still have to register as a sex
offender."
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