Rice’s Cyber Unit Gets Top-Count Guilty Pleas

Glen Cove man possessed 53 sexually explicit pictures and 10 videos of child pornography; Rice pushes for lengthy prison sentence

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that prosecutors from her online predator unit have obtained top-count guilty pleas from a 22-year-old Glen Cove man who possessed DVDs containing more than 50 pictures of child pornography and nearly a dozen sexually explicit videos of young children.

In Nassau County court Monday morning, Richard Sineno pleaded guilty to two counts of felony Possession of a Sexual Performance of a Child. In exchange for the top-count guilty pleas, Nassau County Judge William Donnino is expected to sentence Sineno to two and one-third to seven years in prison at his November 19 sentencing date.

Rice said that Sineno was arrested on October 19, 2007 after his Glen Cove roommate and fellow classmate at the New York Institute of Technology inadvertently discovered child porn on two DVDs in their apartment. The roommate turned the DVD over to Glen Cove police who contacted the DA’s office and obtained a search warrant for Sineno’s apartment.

Authorities recovered 53 sexually explicit photos and 10 sexually explicit videos in Sineno’s apartment. Some of the material depicted sexual performances by girls and boys as young as three years old.

“This unit was created to target, arrest and jail exactly this type of online predator,” said Rice. “This defendant was especially sophisticated in his ability to encrypt and conceal his online activity from state and federal law enforcement, which makes him especially dangerous to our community. I’m grateful that my online predator unit and the Glen Cove police department found him when they did because with a guy like this, it was only a matter of time before his crimes became even more dangerous. This defendant deserves to be prison for a long time and that’s exactly where we are going to send him.”

Handling the case for the DA’s Office are Assistant District Attorney and Economic Crimes Deputy Bureau Chief Anne Donnelly and Assistant District Attorney Guido Gabriele of the DA’s Technology Crimes Unit.  Representing Sineno is David Besso, Esq.