Feds: Bar owner gets nearly 20 years in child porn case

Vincent Calamia, 52, of Floral Park, was sentenced to 19... — Vincent Calamia, 52, of Floral Park, was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017, after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a child, according to officials. Credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara; Facebook

By Robert E. KesslerRobert.Kessler@newsday.comOctober 10, 2017

A Floral Park man was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a child, according to officials.

Vincent Calamia, 52, who operated Frankie & Vinnie’s Bar on Jericho Turnpike in Bellerose Terrace, also was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein also ordered Calamia to get mental health counseling and not to be in the presence of a minor without another adult. The judge barred him from accessing adult and child pornography, as well as pictures of naked children on a computer.

The minimum mandatory sentence that Feuerstein could have imposed on Calamia for his plea to a single count of sexual exploitation of a minor was 15 years and the maximum under federal law was 30 years.

That count charged Calamia with getting a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct that was recorded.

Eastern District federal prosecutor Lara Treinis Gatz asked that the judge impose a strong sentence not only to punish Calamia, but “to send a message” to others inclined to act as he had.

Both Calamia and his attorney, William Wexler, of North Babylon, asked that the judge impose the minimum 15-year sentence.

Before he was sentenced Calamia said he realized that “I have to accept full responsibility for my actions.”

Calamia pleaded for the minimum sentence, saying he had been the victim of repeated sexual abuse as a child and that he had learned his lesson in the 39 months he had already served awaiting trial or sentencing.

“I’m sick of the person I was,” Calamia said, adding that any prison time above the minimum would serve no purpose.

When Calamia was arrested in 2014, he also was charged with seven counts of receiving child pornography, but those counts were dropped as part of a plea deal.

Officials at the time of Calamia’s arrest in 2014 said that his child pornography activities started in 2005 and continued until he was taken into custody.