Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a 42-year-old Amityville man[1] was found guilty after a jury trial, of sexually abusing his niece over the course of three years, beginning when she was nine years old.
“For years, this defendant used his familial connection to gain access to the victim, his niece, in order to satisfy his own sexual desires,” said District Attorney Tierney. “My Office will continue to prosecute sexual predators such as this defendant, and seek justice for victims of abuse, especially children.”
The evidence at trial established that during family visits between 2013 and 2016, while the victim was between the ages of nine and 12 years old, the defendant repeatedly touched her breasts and vagina. On certain occasions, the defendant also made the victim touch his penis. The defendant told her multiple times not to tell anyone because he said it would ruin the family.
When the victim was 16 years old, after struggling for years with the impact of the abuse, she had the courage to tell her mother, and later, the police. The defendant was arrested in January 2021.
On July 20,2023, the defendant was convicted after a jury trial heard before County Court Judge, the Honorable Karen M. Wilutis, for Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony.
The defendant is due back in court on September 14, 2023, for sentencing and faces up to seven years in prison. He is being represented by Matthew Tuohy, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Melissa Grier and Breanna McIntyre of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, with investigative assistance from Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Lorraine Winters and Suffolk County Police Department Detective Kathleen Aspromgos, formerly of the Special Victims Section.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.