Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, with New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, announced today that a 35-year-old former highway officer with the NYPD has been indicted by a Queens County grand jury and charged with promoting a sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child. The officer allegedly used his cellphone to send an explicit video of a male child no older than 6 being sexually abused by a female adult.

District Attorney Katz said, “The defendant, who is vested with enforcing the law as a member of the New York City Police Department, is accused of committing a horrible breach of trust by possessing and disseminating a video that is for all intents and purposes images of a crime scene. The defendant is accused of using his cell phone to share a video of a child being abused by an adult. This alleged behavior is wholly unacceptable of anyone – especially a member of law enforcement.”

NYPD Commissioner Shea said, “We take these allegations extremely seriously. The officer has been immediately suspended without pay. I commend the professional actions of the NYPD investigators from the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Queens District Attorney’s Office for their work on this case.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Yavier Julio, 35, of Suffolk County, Long Island. Julio is charged in a 4-count indictment with 1 count of promoting a sexual performance by a child and 3 counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child. Julio was arraigned early this afternoon before Queens Supreme Court Justice John Zoll, who released the defendant on his own recognizance and set June 4, 2020 as the defendant’s next court date. If convicted, Julio faces up to 7 years in prison.

According to the charges, said District Attorney Katz, on November 9, 2019, the defendant used his cell phone to send a text message to an individual and allegedly included a video of a child between the ages of 3 and 6 years old engaged in a sex act with an adult.

Continuing, said the District Attorney, a court-authorized search warrant was obtained on November 22, 2019, and Julio’s phone was confiscated and a forensic examination allegedly found the video that the defendant is accused of sending to another person, even though, the video had been deleted. The exam also found 2 additional videos of children being sexually abused. One of the additional videos depicted children between the ages of 2 and 6 years old engaged in or simulating sexual intercourse and another video depicted a child between the ages of 2 and 6 years old with his genitals exposed.

The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the New York City Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, Group 27, under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner Joseph J. Reznick.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Christine M. Oliveri, of the District Attorney’s Integrity Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys James M. Liander, Bureau Chief, Khadijah Muhammad-Starling, Deputy Bureau Chief, Yvonne Francis and Daniel J. O’Leary, Supervisors, and under the overall supervision of Chief Executive Assistant District Attorney Jennifer L. Naiburg.

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