Man charged with possessing child porn pleads to reduced charge
STAMFORD — Having spent three years and seven months in prison after being accused of possessing child pornography and enticing a minor in 2017, a Westport resident has been released after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree child pornography and enticing a minor.
Paul Letersky, 51, a real estate agent and actor whose screen credits include “Boardwalk Empire,” became the subject of an investigation after a law enforcement agency in Colorado alerted Westport detectives in late 2016 to an alleged series of texts beween Letersky and a 13-year-old boy in their jurisdiction, according to Letersky’s arrest affidavit.
A subsequent search of Letersky’s Westport home uncovered over 50 digital images of child pornography, Westport Lt. David Farrell said upon Letersky’s arrest in January of the following year.
With charges against him of risk of injury to a child, enticing a minor and first-degree possession of child pornography, Letersky has been held in the high-security MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield in lieu of a $500,000 court appearance bond he has been unable to post.
Westport police reviewed 110 texts exchanged between the Letersky and the boy, according to the affidavit.
Letersky was earlier convicted of risk of injury to a child as a result of a 2002 arrest by the Weston Police Department. He was accused then of downloading child pornography, which resulted in him being placed on the state’s sex offender registry in 2004, the affidavit said.
At his hearing with Stamford Judge Kevin Randolph, Letersky appeared on video from MacDougallWalker while his criminal defense attorney Mark Sherman and prosecutor Dan Cummings were in Stamford.
Randolph released him on a promise to appear at his sentencing scheduled for October 8.
Sherman said the plea deal was fair under the circumstances, and allowed his client to be released from prison immediately.
“Paul is an extremely bright and talented artist who got caught up in the dangerous waters of the internet. He is relieved to put this case behind him and determined to get back to his work and his art,” he said.
Letersky will have to spend 10 years on the sex offender registry and remain on sex offender probation for 15 years, under which he will be subject to close monitoring. While out waiting for sentencing he will be electronically monitored and must receive permission from probation before he can live anywhere.
According to the website IMDB, Letersky played a number of uncredited, recurring roles — including an iron salesman, a postal supervisor and a state police officer — from 2010 to 2013 on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire." He also appeared in another uncredited role as a KGB agent in 2014 and 2015 episodes of the FX series, "The Americans.”