A 48-year-old Winthrop man charged with masturbating in front of two children at the Winthrop Public Library was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing in East Boston District Court today, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

STEVEN T. STACY (D.O.B. 9/16/62) was arraigned this morning on charges of open and gross lewdness and enticement of a child under the age of 16, for the June 21 incident. Noting that the defendant has an open case pending in the same court for annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex, Assistant District Attorney Brenna Flynn successfully filed a motion to keep Stacy behind bars pending a hearing under the state’s so-called “dangerousness statute,” scheduled for July 6.

Under Ch. 276, Sect. 58A of the Massachusetts General Laws, a judge may hold a defendant accused of certain violent crimes without bail pending trial upon “clear and convincing evidence that no conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of any other person or the community.

Flynn told the court that, at 12:30 Tuesday afternoon, two 9-year-old girls were in the library when one of them saw Stacy masturbating with his pants down around his ankles. Frightened, the children ran and told their parents, who in turn notified the Winthrop Police Department.

Winthrop Police detectives responded to the library and conducted a search of the premises, but did not find the suspect, Flynn said. Library employees were instructed to contact police should the suspect return. In the meantime, detectives interviewed the two victims and were able to get a description of the suspect.

On June 22, Flynn told the court, library staff observed Stacy in the library again and immediately contacted authorities. Police detectives who arrived on the scene saw Stacy sitting at a computer and touching himself.

Flynn told the court that, in a post-Miranda interview conducted by police detectives, Stacy allegedly admitted to exposing himself to the girls and performing a sex act while mumbling for them to touch him. During the interview, Stacy allegedly acknowledged that he knew that his actions had been wrong and that he fled from the library immediately after the incident for fear of being caught.

Stacy is currently charged in an unrelated case of annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex. In that case, Stacy is alleged to have approached two girls, ages 11 and 12, while they were on their way to school on March 24. With one hand down his pants, he allegedly used the other hand to gesture toward his crotch while trying to get the girls to come over to him.

At his arraignment on that case, Suffolk prosecutors requested that he be held on $1,000 bail, that he stay away from the location of the incident, and that he have no contact with the victims. An East Boston District Court judge imposed a $300 bail and the stay away order, and additionally imposed a curfew under which Stacy is required to stay in his house between the hours of 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 pm to 4:00 p.m. – times when children would be traveling to and from school. That case is scheduled for a bench trial on Aug. 4.

Stacy was represented in court today by attorney Shannon Lopez.