A Los Angeles federal judge denied bail Wednesday for a convicted sex offender who has been in custody about seven years while awaiting trial on child sex charges involving a girl he illegally married in the Philippines.
Stanley Dan Reczko III is charged in a two-count federal indictment with the sexual exploitation of children and the commission of a felony offense involving a minor while being required to register as a sex offender. He faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted, prosecutors said.
Reczko, 50, of Los Angeles was arrested in September 2007 after arriving in the United States from the Philippines, where he had illegally married the 16-year-old victim in the case, officials said.
Prosecutors contend Reczk took more than 100 nude and sexually explicit photographs of the girl and brought them to the U.S. on a laptop.
In 1997, Reczko pleaded guilty in New York to the first-degree rape of a 12-year-old relative, for which he was sentenced to between four and eight years in prison, according to documents and statements in court.
In court today, Reczko tried to persuade U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick J. Walsh to release him, pending trial, on an unsecured $10,000 bond, essentially a promise to appear for all future court dates.
“I’ve got 20 million people in this district,” Walsh told the defendant. “Many of them would be in danger if I let you out.”
Reczko, who is defending himself, countered that the rape conviction “was two decades ago. I should be able to be out, working” and preparing for trial.
“I’m not a danger or a flight risk,” he told the judge, who denied the bail motion.
Reczko is expected to go to trial in February.
— City News Service