Friday, March 18, 2005

D.A. BROWN: FORMER COLLEGE POINT RESIDENT CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ATTACKING SEVEN CHILDREN –- FIVE GIRLS AND TWO BOYS AGED SEVEN TO 11; FACES 50 YEARS IN PRISON

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Nassau County resident formerly of College Point, Queens has been charged in sexual attacks on seven children –- five girls and two boys aged seven to 11 –- including some youngsters who had gone to his College Point home to play with his children. He faces 50 years in prison.

District Attorney Richard A. Brown said, “According to the charges, the defendant isolated children –- both girls and boys –- inside his home and his van where he sexually assaulted and abused them. The charges accuse the defendant of betraying his trust as a parent and destroying the innocence of children. The charges are shocking.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Michael Flory, 48, a mechanic, of 91 Poplar Street in West Hempstead in Nassau County, a former resident of College Point in Queens County. The defendant has been charged in multiple criminal complaints with Rape in the First Degree, Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, Sexual Abuse in the First Degree and Endangering the Welfare Of a Child. He faces 50 years in prison if convicted.

According to the District Attorney, it is charged that between March 1, 2004 and March 11, 2005 inside the defendant’s former residence in College Point and a van parked outside the home, the defendant raped, sodomized and sexually abused seven children –- five girls and two boys aged seven to 11.

The District Attorney said that it is further charged that the attacks included anal, vaginal and oral sexual intercourse and sexual touching of genitals and breasts.

The defendant was arrested early today by detectives of the New York City Police Department’s Special Victim’s Squad Child Abuse Unit and is being held pending arraignment in Queens Criminal Court.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Vincent Pellizzi of the New York City Police Department’s Queens Special Victims Squad Child Abuse Unit under the supervision of Captain Janine Irizarry, Lieutenant Arthur Hall and Sergeant Guisella Rodriguez and the overall supervision of Inspector Ann Marie Connell.

Assistant District Attorneys Donna Marie Golia and Leigh Bishop of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Marjory D. Fisher, Bureau Chief, and Lucinda C. Suarez and Kenneth M. Appelbaum, Deputy Chiefs, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

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