A longtime member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee who formerly served as its deputy legal counsel resigned last week after being charged in Essex Superior Court with rape of a child and four other offenses, according to court records and a party spokesman.
Robert J. LeBlanc, 80, was released on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty to child rape, one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child over the age of 14, according to court records.
LeBlanc resigned from the Democratic committee at the request of party chairman Steve Kerrigan, according to Matthew Wilder, a spokesman for the state party.
“He hasn’t been an active member,” Wilder said last week. “He hasn’t been involved much for many years.”
LeBlanc joined the committee in 2002, Wilder said. A lawyer, LeBlanc last served as a volunteer attorney for the committee in 2006, Wilder said.
LeBlanc’s lawyer, Gerard LaFlamme, declined to comment. LeBlanc, a Methuen resident, did not respond to a message left at his law office.
LeBlanc is being prosecuted by Essex District Attorney Paul F. Tucker’s office. A spokesperson last week declined to provide details of the allegations, citing the ongoing case.
Records show an indictment was returned by an Essex County grand jury on March 31. LeBlanc’s next court hearing is set for May 20.
Wilder said the committee has not been notified by prosecutors that the allegations against LeBlanc are connected to his activities with the party during the past 23 years.
In 2023, LeBlanc was publicly reprimanded by the Board of Bar Overseers for disclosing confidential information about a former client’s juvenile convictions during an online feud on Facebook, according to the agency’s website.
According to The Eagle-Tribune, LeBlanc was town manager in Methuen from 1976 to 1981 and in 2002 was ordered to stay out of a Barnes & Noble store. In 2005, he was told to keep off the campus of Greater Lawrence Technical School.
LeBlanc has held an array of positions for local municipalities dating back to the early 1970s. His LinkedIn page describes him as a “Litigator, Political Strategist, Lobbyist, City and Regional Manager, Negotiator, Business Owner.”
LeBlanc’s tenure as deputy legal counsel for the Massachusetts Democratic Party began in 1993, according to his LinkedIn page. A spokesperson for the party said LeBlanc has not held that position for nearly 20 years.
LeBlanc has been employed as the assistant city manager in Cambridge and as the town auditor in Fitchburg. From 1976 to 1981, before Methuen was a city, LeBlanc was town manager there, The Eagle-Tribune reported.
LeBlanc was also town manager in Salem, N.H., for six months, from August 1983 to February 1984, according to the town’s human resources department.
Records show that LeBlanc also ran for the Methuen city council in 2013 but came in last in his bid for councilor-at-large, election records show.
Also in 2005, LeBlanc was issued a stalking order after propositioning a high school boy who worked at grocery store in Salem, N.H., The Eagle Tribune reported.
LeBlanc’s assault charge in 2009 stemmed from an inappropriate “bear hug” he gave to a female lawyer at the Lawrence District Court, according to the ABA Journal.
According to a police the report, the woman said LeBlanc grabbed her from behind, “wrapped his arms around her midsection just below her breast and pulled her tightly to him, pressing his pelvis against her backside” in a bear hug, the journal reported.
LeBlanc then “stated aloud to the colleagues standing there, ‘Isn’t she a beautiful Republican?‘” the report said.
This story has been updated.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.