Top Aide to Mass. Governor Charged With Sexually Assaulting Boy

BOSTON – A top official in Gov. Deval Patrick's administration is accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the steam room of a Florida resort and has been placed on unpaid leave.

Carl Stanley McGee, the assistant secretary for policy and planning, was arrested Dec. 28 after the suspected assault at the Gasparilla Inn and Club in Boca Grande, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

McGee, 38, met the boy, who police said is between 12 and 16 years old, in a bathroom at the resort a day earlier where they engaged in small talk, according to the police report.

The boy told police he ran into McGee again the next day in the resort's steam room. McGee sat next to him, removed his towel, rubbed the boy's back and shoulders and performed oral sex on him, according to the police report.

The boy's father contacted police, who spotted McGee at the resort using a description from the boy.

McGee was freed on $300,000 bond on Dec. 30 and is to be arraigned Monday on a charge of sexual assault on a victim over 12 using physical force, according to authorities.

Messages left for McGee's lawyers were not returned Thursday, nor were messages left at two numbers listed for McGee in Boston.

"Mr. McGee was placed on unpaid administrative leave effective January 7th pending the outcome of the matter," Kofi Jones, a spokeswoman for Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Dan O'Connell, said in a statement.

McGee, who made $115,000 as a state employee, worked at Boston law firms before joining the administration. His marriage to John Finley IV in November 2005 was featured in The New York Times' Vows column.