Suffolk Police Officer George Trimigliozzi, accused of helping operate brothels, indicted on rape charges

A Suffolk police officer previously accused of helping run brothels is facing new charges alleging he raped and sexually abused women he met on dating apps, a Suffolk prosecutor said Wednesday.

George Trimigliozzi, 56, of Islip, pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, third-degree rape and second-degree unlawful imprisonment before Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei in Riverhead. 

Prosecutors said Trimigliozzi took a woman he met on a dating app out for a date in Hampton Bays on June 10, 2022, and pushed her down on her bed, raping her, after asking for a tour of her home, where she had invited him to sober up before riding his motorcycle home.

A year earlier, on May 14, 2021, he is alleged to have touched a woman's genitals during a date in Patchogue while she was seated in the passenger seat of his car, prosecutors said. Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Laura de Oliveira said Trimigliozzi reached over the woman and closed a door she had opened to leave the vehicle, then placed his body between her and the door, "prohibiting her escape." 

Prosecutors said both alleged victims believed they could trust Trimigliozzi because they knew he was a police officer.

"Police officers swear an oath to protect us," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement. "These allegations are truly disturbing."

Mazzei issued stay-away orders of protection for both women, who were not named in court. De Oliveira said prosecutors will seek to seal the names of the victims and witnesses in the case.

Defense attorney William Keahon said the indictment unsealed in court Wednesday is "merely a mechanism to get allegations into this courtroom."

"This court has heard no witnesses testify," Keahon said. "You see no evidence brought into this court at this point in time."

Keahon, of Hauppauge, described his client as a father of two and decorated 18-year veteran of the Suffolk County Police Department. He said Trimigliozzi was named an officer of the month five times during his career and was honored by the U.S. Secret Service for an arrest he made of an armed suspect in a counterfeiting case.

"One year, he had the most arrests of any officer in the department," Keahon said of his client.

Keahon declined to discuss the new allegations against Trimigliozzi outside of court.

Prosecutors had sought bail of $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond, but Mazzei set the bond at $100,000 as requested by Keahon, who noted his client made each appearance since his release on a $50,000 bond last year.

He faces up to 7 years in prison if convicted of the sexual abuse charges, which are considered violent felonies.

Trimigliozzi, who wore a gray suit and was escorted into the courtroom in handcuffs after surrendering on the new charges, was suspended without pay from the Suffolk County Police Department last August while he was under investigation in the American Girls Spa brothel case. Tierney said at the time of Trimigliozzi's arrest in October that the suspension was not related to the investigation into the Sunrise Highway business but rather "other incidents of alleged misconduct" from "allegations that he failed to perform his duties."

Trimigliozzi previously pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of enterprise corruption, two counts of falsifying business records, filing a false instrument and official misconduct for the earlier case. He is alleged to have "collected proceeds" from the sex workers and coordinated their schedules at the Holbrook brothel, which he managed with his co-defendant, Steven Arey, 54, a now-suspended physical education teacher in the Islip school district, prosecutors previously said.

Two other people, alleged ringleader Frank Saggio, 60, of West Islip, and his girlfriend Dana Ciardullo, 32, of North Bellmore, were also charged with enterprise corruption and promoting prostitution.

Saggio, an admitted mob associate with prior felony convictions, oversaw the prostitution brothels, which included Tunnel of Love in West Babylon, from October 2019 to June 2024, according to court papers.

Trimigliozzi and his co-defendants in the brothel case are alleged to have forced the sex workers, some of whom spoke limited English, to sign "leases" to pay for the use of the suites — $6,000 monthly for the Holbrook location and $12,000 for West Babylon, prosecutors said. The sex workers were paid in tips.

Prosecutors have alleged in a civil forfeiture complaint against Saggio and Ciardullo that the brothel operation produced nearly $2 million in revenues for Saggio, which he laundered through corporations to purchase Fire Island real estate.

The investigation into Trimigliozzi was conducted by the Suffolk County District Attorney's Public Corruption Squad and is being prosecuted by de Oliveira, the deputy chief of the Public Corruption Bureau, and Chief Kevin Ward.

The yearslong investigation began after Trimigliozzi responded in his squad car to a robbery at the Holbrook brothel in March 2021 despite working in a different precinct, prosecutors previously said. Working an overnight shift in the Third Precinct, he arrived at the brothel, located in the Fifth Precinct, in uniform after being alerted to the robbery by a worker at the brothel. 

"You have this Third Precinct police officer there," Tierney told reporters in October. "Why was he there? And the investigation sort of proceeds from there."

Trimigliozzi is due back in court Thursday, though that appearance is now expected to be adjourned to a later date, attorneys said in court.

Investigators are asking anyone else who believes they may have been victimized by Trimigliozzi to call the district attorney’s office at 631-853-4626.

With Nicole Fuller

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.