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Somers resident Richard Leaf, age 74, who is well-known in Westchester for announcing Section 1 boys and girls basketball tournaments for more than three decades, pleaded guilty to a count of receiving child pornography on Thursday, June 29, according to federal court documents.
Leaf, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017 and is a retired social studies teacher who worked in the Harrison School District, posed as a teenager named “Alex Bronson” to communicate with a minor who he believed was 15 years old over Skype.
During these communications, Leaf received a video of the minor masturbating in the shower as well as a fully nude picture of him in his bedroom, officials said.
Authorities also found almost a dozen images and videos that contained child pornography on Leaf's computer.
Over the course of his efforts to communicate with minors on Chat Avenue, an online chatroom website, and Skype, Leaf created numerous fake accounts with usernames such as:
- alex bronson;
- sportsboi.15;
- alex15;
- 15brandon;
- zach.914;
- runnerboi.14.
Leaf now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison.
In addition to announcing the basketball tournaments, Leaf was also known for announcing Iona College men's and women's basketball; Scarsdale and Mamaroneck varsity basketball games, and numerous tournaments; and serving as president of the Westchester-Putnam Approved Soccer Officials Association.
He will now be removed from the Westchester Sports Hall of Fame, according to County Executive George Latimer.
"We cannot countenance such behavior with any kind of honor," Latimer said.
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