Long Island Educator And Coach Pleads Guilty To Receiving Child Pornography

Earlier today, Long Island educator and coach Kevin Barry O’Connell, 54, pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography at his residence in Patchogue, New York.  The plea proceeding was conducted before U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, NY.  O’Connell faces a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years, and a fine of $250,000.

Today’s guilty plea was announced by Kelly T. Currie, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York.

“Charged by profession with caring for children, the defendant instead acted to foster their victimization by receiving numerous images of the abuse of children,” stated Acting United States Attorney Currie.  Mr. Currie thanked the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, HSI for its investigation of this case.

According to court filings and admissions made in court at the time he entered the plea, O’Connell downloaded video files of the rape and abuse of children as young as eight years old which he kept on thumb drives in his Patchogue home.  During a court-ordered search of his residence on October 15, 2012, O’Connell initially lied to HSI agents and denied that he possessed child pornography until agents found three thumb drives in the pocket of a jacket at the house.  O’Connell then admitted that he had hidden the drives in the jacket.

Following his arrest, O’Connell was suspended from his employment as an Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education in the Roosevelt Union Free School District.  O’Connell had previously served as the Principal of Bellport Senior High School in the South Country Central School District and an Assistant Principal at Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School.  O’Connell was the Varsity Baseball Coach from 1990 to 2001 at William Floyd High School.

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Allen Bode.

The Defendant:

Kevin Barry O’Connell
Age:  54
Patchogue, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 12-CR-715 (LDW)