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Defense alleges retribution by police as trial opens for woman charged in teen-sex case

On the opening day of trial for a Delaware County woman who allegedly had sex with five teen boys last winter, her attorney accused police of seeking retribution against his client.

On the opening day of trial for a Delaware County woman who allegedly had sex with five teen boys last winter, her attorney accused police of seeking retribution against his client.

Meanwhile, the first of the teens to testify on behalf of the prosecution admitted on the stand that he'd been arrested in the hours prior to testifying.

Lisa Scott, 41, of Linwood, is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and related crimes for allegedly having sex with the boys, who ranged in age from 13 to 16, and providing them with alcohol.

Yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Jeff Boogay said the case is one of "imperfect people in imperfect situations." He conceded the victims are troubled boys with juvenile records but said the similarities in their stories are hard to ignore.

Defense attorney Mark Much said the five boys - who are all friends - are lying and suggested that Scott, a 1994 Temple University grad who worked in the field of psychology, is the victim of an angry boy's rage.

Without delving into detail, Much suggested in his opening that the Lower Chichester Township Police Department, which covers Linwood and was the agency that arrested Scott, is seeking retribution against her for a complaint she filed against one of the department's officers in 2007.

Much also suggested that retribution was the reason behind at least one of the victim's allegations.

That boy, a 15-year-old, said that their sexual encounters started when he was living with her last year.

Scott was granted temporary guardianship of the teen with his mother's consent, but the Daily News is withholding the reason he moved in with her to protect his identity.

The boy said that at first his relationship with Scott was "like a mother-and-son thing," but that one night, while they were on the couch, she started kissing his neck and took him up to her bedroom by his hand.

He said they had sex "a lot" after that, though he couldn't recall the number of times.

"I really didn't think there was anything wrong with it at first," he said.

But on Jan. 8, when Scott refused to give him $10 for marijuana, the boy left her house in a rage and headed back to his mother, according to testimony.

Before he could get there, though, he was picked up by police and taken back to Scott's house. Scott told officers she wanted the boy committed to a mental institution and the boy told police that they'd been having sex, according to testimony.

After Scott's arrest, the teen recanted his story and tried to get the other boys to recant, too, because he "didn't want her to go to jail," he said.

Responding to a question by Much during cross-examination, the teen admitted to being arrested Monday night along with another of the alleged victims. Because Much's question seemed to catch the prosecution and the judge off-guard, he withdrew it, with the understanding that it can be addressed again once all parties have time to look into the charges.