WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005

DA BROWN: SCOUTMASTER CHARGED AGAIN
WITH SEXUAL ABUSE OF ANOTHER 13-YEAR-OLD BOY SCOUT
Faces Up to 15 Years in Prison

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that the scoutmaster of a Great Neck Boy Scout troop who was arrested ten days ago for sexually abusing and taking sexually explicit photographs of a 13-year-old member of his troop on numerous occasions over the past several years has been re-arrested on similar charges involving another 13-year-old member of his troop. The incidents allegedly took place in the Little Neck, Queens, church where the troop held its weekly meetings.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Ronald E. Occhipinti, of 58-14 East Hampton Boulevard in Bayside Queens. Occhipinti, who works for a Long Island burglar alarm system company and is the scoutmaster of Troop 183 in Great Neck was originally arraigned before Queens County Judge Robert Raciti on August 19, 2005. He was charged at that time with one count of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree and multiple counts of Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance, Criminal Sexual Act in the Second Degree, Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child, Possessing an Obscene Sexual Performance by a Child, Endangering the Welfare of a Child and Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree. The defendant has been free on bail after posting a $250,000 bond.

District Attorney Brown said, “As part of a continuing investigation and efforts to find other victims who may have allegedly been sexually abused by the defendant, information was developed in recent days that warranted an arrest at this time. We have an obligation to protect children from those who commit such terrible crimes.”

According to the District Attorney, the defendant was charged in the earlier case with bringing the victim to his residence on various occasions between September 1, 2003, and August 6, 2005, and having the child remove his clothes and pose in lewd and obscene positions, which the defendant then photographed. According to the complaint, the defendant is also accused of sexually abusing the victim by performed sexual acts on him.

The defendant is being held pending arraignment on the new charges, which include Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance, Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child, Possessing a Sexual Performance by a Child and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. It is alleged that the defendant sexually abused his latest victim almost every week in the eleven months preceding his original arrest before boy scout meetings or leadership meetings for the boy scouts.

District Attorney Brown expressed his appreciation to Detective James A. Held and the NYPD Child Sexual Exploitation Unit for their assistance in the investigation.

Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano, Supervisor of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, is prosecuting both cases under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Marjory D. Fisher, Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa.

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