Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a 42-year-old Melville man pleaded guilty to Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree and other related charges, for sexually abusing his seven-year-old niece in August 2023.
“This defendant violated the innocence of a seven-year-old child to satisfy his own despicable sexual desires,” said District Attorney Tierney. “This plea will hold the defendant accountable while sparing the young victim from having to face her uncle in court and testify about the horrific abuse that she endured.”
The District Attorney’s Office is not naming the defendant in order to protect the identities of the victim and the child witnesses.
According to court documents and the defendant’s admissions during his guilty plea allocution, on August 11, 2023, the defendant spent the evening at his sister’s home. After everyone went to bed, the defendant went into his seven-year-old niece’s bedroom and subjected her to sexual abuse. He told her that what he was doing was exercise, and that it would make her strong. The next day, the victim’s mother noticed unusual behavior from the child, and asked her what was wrong. The victim told her mother what the defendant had done to her, and the mother reported the incident to the police.
On August 14, 2023, the defendant was arrested by detectives from the Suffolk County Police Department, to whom he made admissions to sexually abusing the child.
At the time this incident occurred, the defendant was already registered as a sex offender from a 2008 conviction for Attempted Rape in the First Degree.
On November 13, 2023, the defendant pleaded guilty before County Court Judge, the Honorable Karen M. Wilutis, to the following charges:
- Two counts of Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, Class B violent felonies;
- One count of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a Class D violent felony;
- One count of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, a Class A misdemeanor; and
- One count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanor.
The defendant is due back in court for sentencing on December 20, 2023, and he is being represented by Michael Elbert, 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 Lisa Hofelich of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Special Victims Section.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.
