SALEM – Alex Filopoulos, a former Peabody man whose conviction for childenticement was recently overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court was released on housearrest and a GPS monitoring device pending his new trial.Filopoulos, 48, who had worked as a self-employed food broker, was one of the first inthe state convicted under the new child enticement law in April of 2004 for luring a 12-year-old Lynn girl into a car in 2003.Jurors deliberated for about five hours over two days before reaching their decision. Aspart of its verdict, the jury agreed that Filopoulos intended to rape and abuse the child andalso intended to indecently assault and batter her.He was given a three-to-five-year state prison term. The trial was appealed to the SJCwho overturned the case because of technical jury instructions given by the trial judge.In Salem Superior Court Tuesday, Filopoulos was released on his own personal promiseto return to court with the conditions he is to be on twenty-four-seven house arrest at hisMalden home with a 200 yard radius only to leave for court, medical and attorneyappointments with a GPS monitoring device. He is to have no contact direct or indirectwith the victim and her family and is not to initiate any contact with children under 16.On April 9, 2003, a Lynn sixth grader from the Fecteau-Leary Middle School left herschool shortly after 2:30 p.m.She called her father from her cell phone for a ride home because it was raining, but hermother had not gotten out of work yet and the father couldn’t pick her up.The teen began to walk home and got to the corner of Henry Avenue and WashingtonStreet when a horn honked from a car parked on the opposite side of the road, with twopeople inside.The male driver told the girl that her father had sent him to pick her up. When she gotinside the car the female passenger in the front seat said that her name was Holly and thedriver’s name was Alex.The girl testified that Filopoulos asked her if he could have her shirt and pants, but shenever took them off and that she smelled beer on his breath.When they passed her street on Western Avenue, the very frightened girl got concernedand as they stopped the car she unlocked the door, jumped out of the vehicle and ranhome and told her parents.Filopoulos had reportedly told authorities he met Holly Klopotoski earlier that day atCronin’s bar on Washington Street for sex and decided to drive around and look foranother female, as they often did, for a threesome.Klopotoski, 38, of Lynn, pleaded to her role in 2004 and received a split term of 18-months in the county jail, with four months to served and was placed on one year ofprobation.Filopoulos is due back in court on June 18 for trial assignment.
