Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a 36-year-old West Babylon man (NOTE: the District Attorney’s Office is not identifying the defendant to protect the identities of the child victims) pleaded guilty to Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child for sexually abusing his son and daughter.
“This defendant’s heinous actions robbed his children of the feelings of love, safety and security that a father should provide,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Their courage and resilience in the face of such horrific abuse is nothing short of inspiring, and I hope that this plea provides them with some measure of peace in knowing that the defendant will no longer be able to harm them.”
According to court documents and the defendant’s guilty plea allocution, the defendant began sexually abusing his daughter, now aged 10, during visitation periods when she was still wearing diapers. In November 2020, the defendant moved to a home in West Babylon and the abuse continued there. The last incident occurred when the defendant subjected his daughter to sexual acts during a camping trip at the Peconic River campground in May 2022. She was so young when the abuse began that she did not understand what the defendant was doing to her or that it was wrong.
However, following the last incident, the victim spoke to a friend at school about what was being done to her by her father and that friend immediately recognized it was wrong. The friend encouraged the victim to tell her mother or the police. The girl told her mother, who then contacted the police, and the defendant was arrested following an investigation.
Shortly after the defendant’s arrest, the defendant’s 12-year-old son disclosed that he too had been sexually abused by the defendant for the past year during visitation. That child, who is a half-sibling to the defendant’s daughter, told his mother that the defendant had abused him after he learned of the abuse suffered by his sister. His mother then contacted the police, and the defendant was arrested a second time.
On September 6, 2023, the defendant pleaded guilty before County Court Judge, the Honorable Karen M. Wilutis to the charges of two counts of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony.
He is due back in court for sentencing on October 6, 2023, and he is being represented by John Halverson, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney MacDonald Drane of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, with investigative assistance from Detective Patrick Boyles of the Suffolk County Police Department Special Victims Section.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.
