Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a 67-year-old defendant1 was sentenced to 23 years in prison followed by 20 years of post-release supervision after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing his great niece for years, beginning at a celebration for her kindergarten graduation.
The District Attorney is not naming the defendant in order to protect the identity of the child victim.
“Sexual abuse has devastating and lifelong effects on anyone who is a victim of it, especially innocent children,” said District Attorney Tierney. “I hope that the significant prison sentence imposed today is a deterrent to anyone who may want to prey on children.”
The evidence at trial established that in June 2015, the victim’s family took her to a restaurant to celebrate her kindergarten graduation. When the victim needed to use the restroom, the defendant, her great uncle, took her there. After the child had used the bathroom, the defendant pulled down his pants and sexually abused her. The abuse continued when the child visited the defendant’s home, until the last incident in May 2020.
The victim told her mother about the abuse in April 2022, when she was 12 years old, during a conversation concerning the victim’s depression and self-image. Her mother reported the abuse to the police, and the Suffolk County Police Department arrested the defendant on April 13, 2022.
On March 20, 2024, the defendant was convicted of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanor, after a jury trial heard before Acting Supreme Court Justice Karen M. Wilutis.
On April 19, 2024, Justice Wilutis sentenced the defendant to 23 years in prison followed by 20 years of post-release supervision. He is also required to register as a sex offender. The defendant was represented by Christopher Brocato, Esq.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys MacDonald Drane and Katherine Flinchum of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Detective Richard Ciaccio 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.
