By Michael V. Cusenza
A former City police officer assigned to the 75th Precinct was sentenced on Friday to 23 years in prison for sexually exploiting minors online, federal prosecutors announced.
On March 24, 2023, Carmine Simpson, of Holbrook, L.I., pleaded guilty to one count of sexually exploiting a minor. The charges stem from Simpson’s extensive online conduct in 2020, while he was an NYPD cop, which includes engaging numerous children in sexual conversations, enticing and manipulating them into sending him nude images and videos, routinely requesting them to engage in live chat sessions on FaceTime and Snapchat, directing them to physically harm themselves, and asking them to write degrading sexual phrases on their nude bodies. Simpson resigned from the NYPD in 2022.
“The defendant’s repeated sexual solicitation and exploitation of minors is reprehensible,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joe Nocella, Jr. “That he was a law enforcement officer at the time he committed these crimes makes his conduct even more horrific.”
Simpson targeted vulnerable children on Twitter for the purpose of having them create and send him sexually exploitative photos and videos of themselves. Simpson had multiple Twitter profiles and pretended to be a 17-year-old boy to entice minors into engaging with him, even using a filter to alter his own appearance so that he looked younger. Simpson then communicated with numerous minors, including some as young as 13 years old.
Law enforcement first learned about the defendant’s conduct in December 2020, after the mother of John Doe 2, a 13-year-old transgender male, filed a police report after finding chat communications with the defendant on her child’s computer. In those messages, the defendant stated, “Do you take good nudes?” and “You take good nudes? Prove it.” He gave instructions to write words on the victim’s body with a marker and commented: “How many words do you think we can add to your body?” As part of that conversation, John Doe 2 sent Simpson at least two sexually explicit videos.
“Carmine Simpson betrayed his badge by preying upon minors for twisted sexual gratification. Simpson repeatedly prowled online for minor victims before coercing them to provide sexually explicit and degrading content,” said FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia. “The FBI will never tolerate any individual who exploits children, especially those with sworn duties to protect them.”
Last month, another City cop assigned to the 7-5 was charged with attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors, official misconduct and other crimes for allegedly sending sexually explicit content via an online app to an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl.
Travis Desouza, 35, of Briarwood, worked for the NYPD’s Law Enforcement Explorers program for young people. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that Desouza allegedly, “took advantage of his position with the NYPD to prey on someone he thought was a 14-year-old who happened to be a police officer undercover on assignment. The Explorers is an amazing program and our kids need to trust and have faith in its leaders. Although he was told that the ‘girl’ was just 14, the defendant allegedly sent explicit content to her.”
