TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2005

D.A. BROWN: NYPD POLICE OFFICER CAUGHT IN INTERNET “SEX STING”
ADMITS TO BEING CYBERSPACE PREDATOR
Tried to Lure Undercover Detective Posing as 14–Year-Old Boy to Meet For Sex

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a New York City Police Department Police Officer – formerly assigned to the 114th Precinct in Astoria as the precinct’s Youth Officer – has pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to meet for sexual relations a person he had met online and who he believed to be a 14-year-old boy. The boy was actually a New York City Police Department undercover detective assigned to its Computer Crimes Squad.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has now admitted that he sent instant messages utilizing America Online and made arrangements to meet an individual who he believed was a 14-year-old boy to have sexual relations. The intended victim was, however, actually an NYPD undercover detective conducting a ‘sting’ operation. The case underscores the crucial importance of Internet surveillance initiatives by law enforcement to protect children from sexual predators and should serve as a warning to parents to closely monitor their children’s Internet access and activities.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Michael Costello, 39, a former NYPD police officer who resides in New York City. The defendant, who was arrested in April 2005, pleaded guilty earlier today to Attempted Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt, who indicated that she would sentence the defendant on December 15, 2005 to six months in prison, ten years’ probation and order him to enroll in a sex offender program.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant admitted that, while at home on March 24, 2005, he contacted the undercover detective who he believed to be a 14-year-old boy via the Internet using the screen name Softmouth4U and advised the detective that he was interested in having sex. The defendant also sent a photograph via E-mail, stating that it was a picture of himself, and invited the detective to have sex with him in his car, saying his car had tinted windows.

The District Attorney said that the defendant on March 28, 30 and 31 and April 1, 2005 sent additional Internet messages to the detective. In one such message, the defendant requested the detective to take an X-rated picture of himself and send it to him. On April 1st at about 4:07 p.m. the defendant arranged in an instant message conversation to meet the detective at a Starbucks coffee shop at Queens Boulevard and 67th Avenue in Forest Hills at 8:00 p.m., writing, “U hop in and take your pants off . . . no one will see you . . . so I’ll be there at 8.” Detectives apprehended the defendant that night at about 7:45 p.m. outside Starbucks. At the time of his arrest detectives recovered lubricant and condoms. The defendant, who joined the NYPD in 1990, was immediately suspended and resigned on October 20, 2005.

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 Inspector Jeremiah Quinlan and the overall supervision of Chief of Detectives George F. Brown and Detective Thomas Janow of NYPD Queens Internal Affairs under the supervision of Deputy Inspector Salvatore Comodo and Captain Paul Rung and the overall supervision of Chief of Internal Affairs Charles V. Campisi.

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