Friday, November 21, 2003

D.A. BROWN: TOY DESIGNER CHARGED WITH SEX CRIMES AND CHILD ENDANGERMENT IN INTERNET “STING” OPERATION; ALLEGEDLY ATTEMPTED TO HAVE SEX WITH 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL WHO WAS ACTUALLY UNDERCOVER DETECTIVE

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a designer of toys, games and novelties of major toy producers from New Hyde Park has been charged with attempted rape, dissemination of indecent materials and child endangerment in an undercover internet “sting” operation for allegedly engaging in sexually explicit communications and setting up a meeting for sex with an individual who he believed was a 13-year-old girl but who actually was a New York City Police Department detective.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant is alleged to have used the internet to arrange a sexual liaison with an individual who he believed was a 13-year-old girl but who actually was an undercover detective. The charges are disturbing and should serve as a warning to parents that they must closely monitor and supervise the use of the internet by their children in order to protect them from sexual predators.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Richard Trincellito, 39, of 2013 New Hyde Park Road in New Hyde Park in Nassau County. The defendant has been charged with Dissemination of Indecent Material to Minors in the First and Second Degree, Attempted Rape in the Second Degree, Attempted Sodomy in the Second Degree, Attempted Dissemination of Indecent Material to Minors in the First and Second Degree, Attempted Endangering the Welfare of a Child and Attempted Sex Abuse in the Second Degree and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

District Attorney Brown said that according to the charges, the defendant, on several occasions between November 12 and November 20, 2003, communicated over the internet using the AOL instant message service with the screen name of “Gippetto 1” with an undercover detective posing as a 13-year-old girl and engaged in sexually explicit chat. The defendant is alleged to have sent to the detective instant messages in which he claimed he was 39- years-old and liked younger girls. The charges additionally allege that the defendant sent numerous sexually explicit photographs including one of himself exposing his private parts and others depicting females in various sexual acts. The defendant thereafter set up a meeting for yesterday at the 711 store at 208th Place and Bell Boulevard in Bayside, Queens and was observed by detectives arriving at the proposed meeting site.

The District Attorney said that the defendant was arrested at about 3:20 p.m. in the parking lot outside the 711 store with three condoms in his pants pocket.

The District Attorney said that it is alleged that the defendant has admitted in a statement that he had been online numerous times with the screen name utilized by the detective and that he had sent numerous pornographic images to the detective who he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

District Attorney Brown said that detectives last night executed a court-authorized search warrant at the defendant’s home in New Hyde Park and recovered a Macintosh computer that he allegedly had used to communicate with the undercover detective along with numerous videotapes.

The defendant is being held pending arraignment in Queens Criminal Court.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Michael Smith of the New York City Police Department’s Computer Crimes Squad under the supervision of Lieutenant John Otero and the overall supervision of Chief of Detectives George F. Brown. Detective John Kenna of the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau assisted in the investigation under the supervision of Lieutenant Robert Burke and the overall supervision of Chief Lawrence P. Festa and Deputy Chief Albert D. Velardi.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Kateri A. Gasper, Computer Crimes Unit, of the District Attorney's Special Proceedings Bureau under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Robert D. Alexander, Unit Chief, and Anthony M. Communiello, Chief, and Oscar W. Ruiz, Deputy Chief, Special Proceedings Bureau, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Assistant District Attorney Linda M. Cantoni, Counsel to the Investigations Division.

It should be noted that criminal charges are merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.