Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a 69-year-old Wading River man was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty 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.
“Sexual abuse has devastating and lifelong effects on anyone who is a victim of it, especially an innocent child,” 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.”
According to court documents 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 family then called the police, and the defendant was placed under arrest. The defendant confessed to having sexually abused the victim.
On January 14, 2025, the defendant pleaded guilty to the following charges before Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei:
- 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.
On March 3, 2025, the defendant was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was represented by Steven Politi, Esq.
This case was 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.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.