CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – North Country Executive Councilor Ray Burton says he kept a campaign worker on the payroll even after learning of the man’s sexual assault conviction involving a 17-year-old boy.
Burton said he only became aware of Mark Seidensticker’s 1992 attempted assault conviction several years after it happened. He told the Concord Monitor he kept Seidensticker on the payroll, warning him to stay away from children on the campaign trail and keeping him under “strict supervision.”
Seidensticker, 45, of Concord and Ogunquit, Maine, was arrested this week in Concord, accused of inappropriate contact with teenage boys. He was being held on $50,000 bail at the Boscawen jail.
Before that, he was convicted in Littleton District Court in 1998, and in York, Maine, in 2002 and 2004, of violating a requirement that he register as a sex offender.
Burton, who has represented the North Country since 1977, described Seidensticker’s duties as “general campaign” work: mailings, phone calls and setting up work for fundraisers. He also frequently drove Burton to and from campaign stops.
Burton paid Seidensticker more than $7,200 last year, according to reports filed with the secretary of state – by far the largest amount Burton paid any campaign workers. Seidensticker earned smaller amounts in 2002 and 1998.
Burton said Seidensticker called him from jail. “I told him to tell the truth,” Burton said. “It’s one of those sad situations.”
He said he would not allow Seidensticker to work on any future campaign.
Seidensticker joined the Burton campaign as a volunteer in 1992 but was dismissed after the assault allegations became known. But he returned to the Burton camp through the years.
In the latest allegations, a 14-year-old boy on Monday reported being approached by a man who offered him beer and cigarettes. Seidensticker was arrested and charged with offering alcohol and tobacco to a minor after police found beer, blankets, rope, tape and sexual aids in his car.
Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com
Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com
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