Former Nassau Det. Robert Sacco seeks bail to get treatment after being charged with attempting to sexually exploit 'girl,' court filings say

A former Nassau County detective charged with attempting to sexually exploit a 10-year-old girl was "motivated by his high sex drive" and "kink sex fetichism," as well as an interest in cheating on his wife, a bail application submitted in his federal court case shows.

However, Robert Sacco, 38, a 10-year veteran of the department, should be released from lockup pending his trial, defense attorney Robert Gottlieb argued, because a psychological evaluation has determined that there was no evidence to show he had "an inappropriate sexual interest in children."

Sacco, who resigned from the department, was caught on internet video chats and text messages on Jan. 23 coaxing a man, whom he believed to be the girl’s father, into having sex with the adolescent, according to a federal complaint. He had been speaking to the man since October.

In reality, the girl did not exist, and the father was an undercover Colonie police officer working with federal authorities, prosecutors said.

"Sacco suggested video chatting with the undercover officer and the purported child so that Sacco could watch the undercover officer sexually abuse the child for Sacco’s sexual gratification," the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York said in a statement.

He also purchased clothing and underwear for the child and suggested that he would travel to the Albany area to meet with the father.

"I would absolutely love to set something up in person, the proximity will make it tough, but I'm willing to try and make it work if we can!" prosecutors quoted Sacco saying.

The former detective has been behind bars since his arrest on Jan. 24 after a federal magistrate deemed him to be a danger to the community, particularly children.

Sacco’s lawyer said now is the crucial time for him to be released from incarceration so he may receive treatment.

"He shows remorse over his behavior and has victim empathy and is highly motivated to receive sex offender treatment for the purpose of extinguishing consensual sexual fetichism interests, reducing sex drive and strengthening his monogamous sexual interest," psychiatrist Eric Goldsmith, who evaluated Sacco, is quoted in court papers.

The root of his behavior, Goldsmith said, was two instances of sexual abuse when the former officer was a child, first by a male neighbor four years older than him from the ages of 10 to 16 and then by the mother of a hockey teammate when he was 17, according to court papers.

"There's never been any allegation or suggestion that he has ever reached out to meet a child, or has ever met a child," Gottlieb told Newsday.

Team photos of the Aviator Hockey Club with Sacco as the coach were included in the bail applications along with pictures of him on the Nassau County "F Troop" police team.

"Mr. Sacco truly is an extraordinary individual," Gottlieb said. "He has served his community, working with kids for years and years. He is so highly regarded by everyone in his youth hockey community, as a teacher, as a coach, as a mentor; there's never been any complaints of this sort ever lodged against him."

Prosecutors have not yet responded to Gottlieb’s bail application. A hearing has been scheduled for April 28 before U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. D'Agostino to consider Sacco’s release before his trial, which has been scheduled for June 8.