A George Mason University administrator wanted on felony charges that he videotaped sex acts with underage partners and tried to extort money from some of them, was arrested last night in the District, police said.
D.C. police said Ronald J. Sinacore, 55, was arrested at 11:45 p.m. at the Days Inn in the 2700 block of New York Avenue NE where investigators discovered him sick and semiconscious.
Investigators said they got the tip about Sinacore's whereabouts from Fairfax County police and went to the motel to arrest him. He was taken to Howard University Hospital for treatment.
Sinacore, an associate director in George Mason's Office of Equity and Diversity Services, was charged last week with two felony counts for allegedly making and possessing child pornography. He was released from jail Monday on $20,000 bond over the strong objections of prosecutors.
Police returned yesterday to his home in the 5400 Block of Long Boat Court in Fairfax to serve three additional felony warrants, including one count of extortion, only to discover him missing. Also missing, according to prosecutors handling the case, was Sinacore's gun.
What investigators found, prosecutors said, were several suicide notes.
Fairfax police reached Sinacore last night by cellular phone and he agreed to turn himself into police at 8 p.m., prosecutors said. Sinacore never showed.
The new arrest warrants charge Sinacore with another count of possession of child pornography and a count of manufacturing child pornography. He also is being charged with extortion, for an alleged attempt to get $10,000 from a recently identified victim who told police that Sinacore threatened to release a video of him "having gay sex" if he didn't pay.
Police said they confiscated as many as 18 tapes from Sinacore's home that depicted his sexual encounters. Some of the people, sources said, knew they were being taped. Others did not.
And in some cases, investigators said, Sinacore would hold a sign up to his video camera that had the victim's name on it as a sort of video ID before engaging in sex.
At the time of his arrest, Sinacore was placed on administrative leave at George Mason, his $83,000 annual salary suspended until the outcome of the investigation, a college spokesperson said today. Sinacore has worked at George Mason since 1991. Among his duties was to counsel employees and managers when issues of sexual harassment would arise.
