Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a Suffolk County man was found guilty by a jury for Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child, after the victim told her mother that the defendant inappropriately touched her. The District Attorney’s Office is not naming the defendant to protect the identities of the two child victims.
“This defendant exploited his access to the child victims to abuse them. Rather than protecting these two children, this defendant took advantage of their innocence to abuse them,” said District Attorney Tierney. “My Office will do everything in our power to protect children from abuse by ensuring that those who harm them are vigorously prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The evidence at trial established that between September 2019 and January 2022, while the defendant lived with his then girlfriend and her children, he repeatedly touched the vagina of one child while she was between the ages of seven and nine years old. These incidents happened at night, after the child had gone to bed. In January 2022, the child then disclosed to her older sister that the defendant had been touching her repeatedly. The younger child did not know at the time of her disclosure that her older sister had also been subjected to inappropriate conduct by the defendant as well. The victims told their mother about the abuse and the mother confronted the defendant before removing him from the home.
When confronted about touching the children, the defendant offered several explanations for his behavior, including that he wanders at night and accidentally went into the wrong room, that he “gets handsy” at night and might have thought the victim was his girlfriend, and that the younger victim might have mistakenly thought that he touched her vagina while he was looking for the remote control in her bed to turn the television off.
On May 5, 2023, the defendant was convicted after a jury trial held before County Court Judge, the Honorable Karen M. Wilutis, for the charges of one count of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, a Class D felony; and two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanors – one count for each of the sisters. The defendant is being represented by the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society. He is due back in court for sentencing on June 26, 2023.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Michelle Chiuchiolo of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.