Rye sex offender indicted on charges he worked with youths

PORTSMOUTH — A Rockingham County Superior Court grand jury has handed up three indictments against a convicted rapist accused of working as a youth counselor and not informing his employer of his sex offender status.

Jeremy "Jay" Semprebon, 40, of 541 Washington Road in Rye has been indicted on felony charges of "prohibition of child care services" and failure to report as a sex offender. He was also indicted on a misdemeanor charge of prohibited sales of alcohol to a minor.

Portsmouth police arrested Semprebon on Aug. 14 and charged him with five felony counts of "prohibition from child care services of a person convicted of certain offenses."

Semprebon's Portsmouth charges resulted in him being held on $30,000 cash bail at the Rockingham County House of Corrections, where he remained as of Tuesday, according to jail officials.

Authorities say Semprebon is a registered sex offender on New Hampshire's public list, having been convicted in 1995 in Strafford County of aggravated felonious sexual assault on a 5-year-old child.

Three of the Portsmouth charges alleged that Semprebon failed to disclose his sex offender status before counseling minors at Seacoast Outright, while acting as an agent of AIDS Response Seacoast.

A separate felony charge alleges that he provided services as a youth education coordinator at Cross Roads House homeless shelter, and a fifth alleges he failed to inform AIDS Response Seacoast that he is a sex offender.

Police allege Semprebon had contact with minors during his course of employment with AIDS Response Seacoast, despite a court order to not have contact with children. He is alleged to have begun working as a youth coordinator for the nonprofit in the summer of 2007 and did not disclose his sex offender status when he was hired.

As part of his job, Semprebon was sent to other nonprofits and worked with both adults and minors.

In August, investigators said they knew of five instances in which Semprebon was in the presence of youths.

Calls to the Rockingham County Attorney's Office regarding which "prohibition" charges he was indicted on, were not returned on Tuesday.

The "failure to report" and "prohibited sales" indictments stem from charges brought forward by the Rye Police Department.

Rye police charged Semprebon with a felony-level count of "duty to report" for allegedly failing to notify police of his employment status after he lost his job with AIDS Response Seacoast.

They also charged him with a Class A misdemeanor of prohibited sales for allegedly providing a 17-year-old boy with a mixed beverage.