By Forum Staff
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Friday that a City cop has been charged with sending sexually explicit content via an online app to an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl.
Travis Desouza, 35, of Briarwood, was assigned to the 75th Precinct in East New York and worked for the NYPD’s Law Enforcement Explorers program for young people.
Desouza was arraigned Thursday night on a criminal complaint charging him with attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors in the first degree, official misconduct, obscenity in the third degree and attempted endangering the welfare of a child.
Photo Courtesy of DA Katz
DA Katz said Desouza allegedly “took advantage of his position with the NYPD to prey on someone he thought was a 14-year-old.”
According to the charges, in October 2024, investigators kicked off an undercover investigation into Travis Desouza’s conduct with participants in the Law Enforcement Explorers program at the 75th Precinct.
On Oct. 3, at approximately 5:49 p.m., an undercover officer, posing as a 14-year-old girl, met with Desouza, who oversaw the program. Desouza asked for the undercover officer’s age, and she told Desouza that she was 14. The undercover officer asked Desouza for his phone number and he provided it.
A separate undercover officer, purporting to be the 14-year-old, had conversations with Desouza from Oct. 8 to Oct. 10 over the Snapchat app. Desouza set the messages to disappear immediately.
On Oct. 10, at approximately 10:11 p.m., Desouza allegedly told the undercover “You something else.” About a minute later, Desouza sent the undercover a photo of a man wearing boxer shorts with his hand on his genitals. He then allegedly made sexually explicit comments.
The conversations between the undercover and Desouza took place while the undercover officer was in an NYPD office building in Queens.
“As alleged, this defendant 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,” Katz said. “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. Thank you to our partners in the NYPD for their assistance with this investigation.”
If convicted, Desouza faces up to 1 1/3 to four years in prison.
