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Serial Sussex County Sex Offender, 66, Arrested Twice After Judge OKs Ankle Bracelet Removal

A serial sex offender was back in jail weeks after a Sussex County judge granted approval for to remove his ankle bracelet after three years of compliance while wearing it.

Richard Boydston

Richard Boydston

Photo Credit: Sussex County Prosecutor's Office

Richard Boydston, 66, of Vernon, was first arrested in April 2017 for luring a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl. He was arrested again the following month on accusations that he sexual assaulted three young girls for several years.

Boydston was indicted in both cases and released from ail with an ankle monitor, but has not appeared in court since 2018, nor showed up on Zoom, Assistant Prosecutor Laura Nazzaro told the Daily Record.

Despite the lack of participation, Boydston has been compliant, authorities said.

And so, on Aug. 9,  Sussex County Judge Louis S. Sceusi allowed Boydston to remove his ankle monitor.

After removing the bracelet, though, Boydston seemed to fall back into old patterns.

On Sept. 11, he approached a high school-aged boy on the Wood Duck Nature Trail -- located at the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge, according to the Daily Record. Boydston asked the high school minor his age told him his name was "Dick," then asked him some sexual questions, the Daily Record report says.

Boydston tried to "make contact" with the minor on the trail again, but was unsuccessful, police said.

On Sept. 20, Boydston made sexually explicit hand gestures while staring at an individual in Wantage, police said.

He was jailed Sept. 23, for the alleged incident on the Wood Duck Nature Trail, the article says.

Nazzaro said Boydston's case is one of the oldest, unresolved criminal cases in the county since 2017.

Boydston was requested for a court appearance Tuesday, Sept. 29 -- the pretrial hearing for his new charges.

Boydstn's lawyer Jeffrey Katz told the Daily Record that his client suffered a massive heart attack in December 2018, and if he gets "extremely upset" talking about the charges, some of the conditions resulting from the heart attack will be aggravated.

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