Long Island Educator And Coach Is Sentenced To Five Years In Prison For Receiving Child Pornography

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY – Earlier today, Kevin Barry O’Connell, a Long Island educator and coach, was sentenced at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, to five years in prison following his July 2015 guilty plea to receiving child pornography at his residence in Patchogue, New York.  The sentencing proceeding was held before United States District Judge Leonard D. Wexler.  O’Connell was also sentenced to five years’ supervised release to follow his prison sentence, during which time he must register as a sex offender and he will not be allowed unsupervised contact with minors. 

The sentence was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. 

“Keeping our children safe is a priority for law enforcement and this Office,” stated United States Attorney Capers.  “This crime was particularly egregious in that O’Connell, as an educator, a former high school principal and a coach was entrusted with ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children while he at the same time was victimizing children by receiving images of children being sexually abused.”  Mr. Capers thanked the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), for its assistance in the investigation.

According to court filings and facts presented at the guilty plea and sentencing proceedings, 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.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Section.  Assistant United States Attorney Allen Bode is in charge of the prosecution.

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, 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 Defendant:

KEVIN BARRY O’CONNELL

Age:  55

Patchogue, New York

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