By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; B02

A convicted Arlington sex offender who failed to show up for a bond hearing last summer and fled to Central America pleaded guilty yesterday in Prince William County Circuit Court to sexually abusing two youths in 2000 and 2001.

A Prince William County police detective testified that Thomas R. Koucky, 42, plied the two teenage friends--one from Northern Virginia, the other from Maryland--with vodka and marijuana and abused the Virginia youth so frequently that the youth tried to kill himself.

Koucky has previous convictions for soliciting boys for prostitution in Florida and Frederick and has admitted to abusing as many as 300 boys, authorities said. He entered guilty pleas yesterday to five charges that could result in a maximum punishment of 60 years in prison and more than $400,000 in fines. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney J. Regan Wilson recommended that Koucky be sentenced to 30 years, with 10 years suspended and 10 years of probation after his release from prison.

Koucky, dressed in jeans and a gray sweat shirt, stood calmly at the defense table and answered "Guilty" as the clerk read the charges: aggravated sexual battery in connection with the Maryland youth, three counts of carnal knowledge and one of taking indecent liberties with the Virginia youth.

In the case of the Virginia victim, police detective Elba Roldan said Koucky befriended the youth's mother and got to know the youth in 2000 through her. Koucky took the youth, then 13, on various outings, asking questions about his sexual development that made the youth "uncomfortable," she said. After being offered money, drugs and alcohol, the youth ultimately agreed to allow Koucky to perform oral sex on him--which first took place in Koucky's car parked outside the Occoquan home of the youth's mother.

The detective said the Virginia youth was abused by Koucky at least 100 times, not always in Prince William County, until he was 17. Last spring, after trying to commit suicide, the youth told authorities what had happened. He was admitted to a psychiatric ward, where police listened in when he called Koucky to discuss the incidents. A transcript of the recorded phone call was submitted in court as evidence.

The youth had not mentioned the abuse to anyone before, Roldan said, because Koucky had warned him not to tell his parents.

Roldan said Koucky abused the Maryland youth, who was then 14, in summer 2001 at Vans Skatepark at Potomac Mills mall. Without specifying where or how the two met, Roldan said Koucky took the youth to the park, shopped while he went skateboarding, then molested him in the car as they prepared to leave, giving him marijuana and orange juice spiked with vodka.

Koucky overpowered the youth, the detective testified. She added that the victim did not come forward until he was 17 because he was embarrassed and afraid.

Defense attorney Alene C. Grabauskas told Circuit Court Judge Lon E. Farris that her client denies giving either youth drugs or alcohol, ordering the Virginia youth not to tell his parents about the incidents or using force with the Maryland youth.

Koucky was apprehended last summer in Guatemala City, three days after failing to show up for the June 29 hearing at which prosecutors had planned to ask a judge to revoke his bond. He is being held without bond, and his sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 15. The victims are now 18, and both are satisfied with the prosecutors' sentencing recommendation, the prosecutor said.

A hearing has been scheduled for March 10 in Arlington County Circuit Court, where Koucky is expected to plead guilty to an additional count of carnal knowledge involving the Virginia youth, this time for an alleged incident at an Arlington residence, according to his attorney and Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Theo Stamos.

Thomas Koucky was captured in Guatemala City.