Montgomery County prosecutors withdrew a felony flight-to-avoid-apprehension charge against Gerard Boguslaw Zalewski, 42, of Clinton, N.J., on Monday, July 20 after a legal technicality rendered the count invalid.
Zalewski, a convicted sex offender who spent 20 years evading justice after skipping his 2006 sentencing hearing in Montgomery County, still faces sentencing on a separate felony charge of default in required appearance. That charge carries up to seven years in prison, Main Line Media News reported.
As reported July 25, Zalewski was extradited from England in August 2024 after serving a 12-year British prison sentence for sexually assaulting a child there. He pleaded guilty to both the flight and default charges on Monday, April 21, 2025.
During a brief hearing before Judge Steven T. O'Neill in Norristown, Assistant District Attorney Samantha L.R. Cauffman explained that the original sentencing court's actions had placed Zalewski into a legal exception that made the flight charge inapplicable.
"The Commonwealth looked into the defendant's claims and found that with respect to that one particular charge, the actions of the original sentencing court did place the defendant into that exception, so that particular count was no longer legally valid in this case," Cauffman told the court.
Zalewski had filed a request to withdraw his guilty plea to the flight charge, arguing it was not "knowing, intelligent or voluntary" because he was unaware of the exception. Once prosecutors withdrew the charge, Zalewski dropped that request. He is represented by defense attorney Cary Hall.
How the case got here
Zalewski was arrested on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2004, after using the internet to arrange a meeting outside the Abington Library on Old York Road with an undercover detective he believed was a 12-year-old girl. The Montgomery County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, working with Abington detectives, conducted the sting. When officers searched Zalewski's car, they found condoms, an ice pick and a digital camera.
During that investigation, detectives identified a 13-year-old Southampton, Bucks County, girl who told authorities Zalewski had picked her up and engaged in sexual activity with her in his car in a secluded area of Bucks County in June 2004.
On Monday, Nov. 14, 2005, Zalewski pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse for the Bucks County incident and attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse for the Abington sting. He was released on $100,000 bail to await sentencing.
In January 2006, the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board recommended Zalewski be declared a sexually violent predator. He never showed up for his Wednesday, March 29, 2006, sentencing hearing. Judge Joseph A. Smyth sentenced him in absentia to 5 to 20 years in prison and issued a warrant for flight and default charges.
Prosecutors at the time described Zalewski as "extremely dangerous" and noted his connections to Poland. He was placed on international watch lists, and Montgomery County worked with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to track him.
Caught in England
Authorities located Zalewski in England in 2016, when Lancashire Constabulary arrested him for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Bamber Bridge, Preston. He had been living in Dartford, Kent. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, he pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child at Preston Crown Court and was sentenced to 12 years in a British prison.
Zalewski was extradited to the United States in August 2024 after completing his UK sentence. He is serving the 5-to-20-year state prison term from his 2006 Montgomery County conviction.
