Since his release from Middlesex Jail, former Concord High School teacher Howie Leung has been living in Malden, Mass., working odd jobs, building furniture and looking for steady employment.
Leung’s attorney Ghazi Al-Marayati said Thursday that his client’s efforts to find work have been stymied by his court-imposed curfew between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., which requires him to remain at home during those hours.
In a hearing held at Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, Mass., on Thursday, Al-Marayati requested to shorten Leung’s curfew, giving him more hours in the day to be able to work.
He told the judge that Leung has been doing a series of “gig jobs” like building furniture but recently had to turn down an offer for a steadier job in construction because the work required him to be at the job site at 7 a.m.
“He hasn’t pursued any kind of second-shift employment due to time constraint,” Al-Marayati said. “And he had to turn down an opportunity.”
Administrative Justice Lawrence D. Pierce, who presided over the hearing, granted the request, giving Leung a new curfew of midnight to 6 a.m., leaving him enough time to work multiple shifts during the day, factoring in travel from his home to the job sites.
However, at the request of prosecuting attorney Radu Brestyan, the judge included a condition that Leung must demonstrate that he is employed or about to be employed before the curfew can change.
Brestyan said he agreed with the decision to change the curfew.
“What can I say, really, we don’t want him out on the streets,” Brestyan told the judge. “We want him employed and keeping busy.”
During the hearing, Leung sat beside his defense attorney, dressed neatly in a blue button-down shirt and gray slacks. He listened attentively to the proceedings, jotting down notes in a notebook, and smiling bemusedly when court officials expressed confusion over the laundry list of bail conditions written on his court docket.
Leung is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a former Concord student during the summers of 2015 and 2016 at the Fessenden Summer ELL Program in Newton, Mass., when the student was 13 and 14 years old, according to court documents.
He is facing two charges of aggravated rape of a child with a 10-year age difference, two charges of aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14, and two counts of aggravated indecent assault and battery on a person age 14 or older.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Leung’s employment with the Concord School District ended in June, after he remained on paid administrative leave for nearly three months. Leung was put on paid leave on March 27 and was arrested April 3. The school district paid him about $19,000 between April and June, according to school officials.
Leung’s compliance hearing, which was slated to happen on Thursday, was rescheduled at the request of both lawyers, who said they are waiting on further discovery.
Leung will appear in court next on Nov. 6.