Christopher Terranova, a 34-year-old NYPD officer charged in the spring with child abuse and possession of child pornography, now faces new federal charges that include allegations that he met some of his victims while on the job.
The defendant, who worked at the NYPD for 12 years, “used a police database to obtain the number of a minor, according to a prosecutor’s document,” he highlighted. The New York Times.
Terranova was first arrested on Staten Island in May and has since been suspended from work. He was assigned to the 121st Precinct Precinct in Graniteville when in March He met a fifteen-year-old who had been a victim of robbery. After that initial meeting, he messaged the teen at a phone number he found in NYPD records, according to prosecutors.
Newfoundland went on to contact the teen on social media and diverted the conversation toward sexual activity and pornography, prosecutors said. She continued to try to gain the teen’s trust by saying he and his victim were “brothers” and asking for pictures, claiming he would be “fun and brotherly.”
The officer eventually sent the teen a sexually explicit photo of himself. “Look, it’s nothing. Your turn,” he allegedly wrote to her later.
Another of the Newfoundland victims was 12 years old, according to a court file. She supposedly met that child while working, she said. DailyNews.
In addition to sending and soliciting sexually explicit photographs, Terranova assaulted one of his victims in May 2022, the feds allege. That victim is identified in court documents as “John Doe 1.”
“The accused [Terranova] offered to take John Doe 1 home,” federal prosecutors say. But actually “He took him to a wooded area, where he ordered John Doe 1 to undress in the car. and forced him to engage in sexual acts with him.”
Prosecutors described messages between Terranova and John Doe 1 about sexual activity they had and photographs of them together. The police officer’s messages said she had bought a house out of state to be near him.
Federal prosecutors said searches of Terranova’s phone and social media account suggest that there may be many other victims. A boy Terranova also contacted through his work as a police officer had been suffering from a mental health crisis and was hospitalized, according to court documents.
At arraignment Thursday in Federal Court in Brooklyn, Newfoundland pleaded “not guilty” to three counts of attempting to produce child pornography and one count of coercion and seduction of a minor.
At the request of the prosecution, Judge Marcia Henry sent him to prison to await trial. All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
In a similar case, in October Jeffrey Grossman (65) and his son Steven Grossman (24), both teachers in Tenafly, New Jersey, were arrested and charged on suspicion of viewing, downloading and possessing child pornography.
At the end of September José Sáez Jr., pastor of a Christian church in Long Island (NY), was arrested on suspicion of producing child pornography, announced the FBI.
Joshua Schulte, convicted in July 2022 for carrying out the most prolific leak in CIA history, was charged in September by the FBI in New York with transporting and possessing thousands of images and videos showing rape and sexual abuse of children
Kevin Tomafsky, a former aide to Republican Chris Christie when he was governor of New Jersey (2010-2018), was arrested on charges that he paid to engage in a sexual act with a six-year-old girl and possessed thousands of items of child pornography in the house where he lived with his mother.
In July, Richard Leaf, a 75-year-old former teacher and well-known Westchester County (NY) high school sportscaster, admitted to receiving child pornography. In June, Steven Marksberry, an NYPD officer assigned to the Bronx, was arrested at his Long Island home for alleged possession of child pornography.
In April, Damon Rallis, former vice president of the Southold Town (Long Island) Democratic Committee and former leader of that town’s Boy Scout troop, pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography.
He National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has warned since 2020 about an increase in cases of child pornography by the increased time of adults and children online. If you are a victim or suspect that someone is being abused, especially if it is a minor or elderly:
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