A York County Boy Scout assistant troop leader accused of sexually abusing three boys between May 2010 and April 2014 is expected to plead guilty if a grand jury returns an indictment after considering the case against him next week.
Thomas George Seifert, 56, waived a preliminary hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship, according to Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Donna Maw. Seifert had faced 18 additional, identical felony charges related to sexual abuse, which prosecutors agreed to drop in exchange for waiving the preliminary hearing and a guilty plea, Maw said.
Prosecutors agreed to the deal after consultation with the alleged victims and their families, she said.
The grand jury meets at 9 a.m. Sept. 16.
Investigators allege Seifert sexually abused three boys near his home in Edgehill.
Seifert was arrested June 26 and charged with four felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship after the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office received a report implicating him of inappropriately touching a teenage boy over the course of two years.
Twelve days later, investigators identified a second boy who may have been targeted by Seifert, and nine days later, a third boy approached YPSO with similar accusations.
The first accuser told deputies Seifert abused him between May 2010 and January 2012 and others had also been abused by Seifert, according to a June 26 criminal complaint filed against Seifert in York-Poquoson Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
A July 3 complaint by a second accuser says Seifert performed “numerous massages” on him when the accuser was “unclothed and had a towel over his private parts.”
The third accuser alleges he was abused between March 2011 and March 2013. According to the complaint, the accuser was close with Seifert and his family for many years, and Seifert was helping him reach the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank for a Scout.
The third boy alleges in the complaint Seifert would punish him each time he did not complete what Seifert demanded in order to receive a merit badge. Punishments would include receiving massages from Seifert and standing naked in front of him, according to the complaint.
Some of the abuses happened at Seifert’s home and at the snack stand at the Edgehill pool where Seifert worked as volunteer, the complaints read.
Seifert’s alleged abuses are believed to go as far back as 1982. A letter from Boy Scouts Executive Michael D. Johns said Seifert was accused but not convicted of sexual assault in 1982, and a report of abuse in 1988 placed Seifert on the Boy Scouts of America Ineligible Volunteer File list, according to a spokesperson for the Colonial Virginia Council.
When his name was placed on the ineligibility list, officials were not certain of the spelling of his last name, and Seifert was able to re-enroll years later, the spokesperson said.
Seifert worked with Troop 226, which is based in Providence United Methodist Church on Old Dare Road in Yorktown.
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