Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a 69-year-old Wading River man1
pleaded guilty in the middle of a jury trial to
Course of Sexual Conduct in the First Degree and other related charges, after sexually abusing his
granddaughter for years, beginning when she was seven years old.
“Children should feel loved and protected while in the company of their grandparents. This
defendant, however, perpetrated heinous acts of sexual abuse against his own granddaughter,” said
District Attorney Tierney. “Let the message be clear that my office will do everything in our power
to protect children.”
According to the investigation and the defendant’s admissions during his guilty plea allocution,
between the fall of 2017 and March 2021, the defendant subjected his granddaughter to repeated
acts of sexual abuse whenever she stayed at her grandparents’ house. The victim disclosed the
abuse to her mother in July 2022, when she was 12 years old. The victim’s mother then told her
own mother, the victim’s grandmother and wife of the defendant.
1 The District Attorney’s Office is not naming the defendant in order to protect the identity of the
child victim.
2
Upon learning that her husband had sexually abused their granddaughter, the victim’s grandmother
confronted the defendant who then admitted to the abuse. The family then immediately called the
police, and the defendant was placed under arrest, at which time he again confessed to having
sexually abused the victim.
On January 14, 2025, the defendant pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice Timothy P.
Mazzei to the following charges:
Course of Sexual Conduct in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony;
Course of Sexual Conduct in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony; and
Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanor.
The defendant is due back in court for sentencing on February 26, 2025, and faces up to 25 years
in prison, followed by 20 years of post-release supervision. He is being represented by Steven
Politi, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Dana Castaldo and Katherine
Flinchum of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, and the investigation was conducted
by Detective Adolfo Berrios of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Special Victims Section.