Joseph Garofalo, a 20-year-old assistant lacrosse coach at Valley Stream Central High School, was denied bail after he allegedly “sextorted” at least 30 boys, including a 13-year-old, a federal judge on Long Island ruled.
Garofalo pleaded not guilty, but was denied bail despite the fact that Garofalo’s parents, grandparents, and aunt were “willing to act as suretors and pledge their individual homes as collateral for defendant’s bail, amounting to roughly $1,550,000 in total equity,” according to documents submitted to the U.S. Eastern District Court in Central Islip.
“Defendant has previously admitted to FBI agents upon arrest that he has an ‘addiction’ to the type of troubling behavior at issue here and, as such, has been unable to stop,” wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Wicks in an order denying Garofalo’s bail on May 6.
Garofalo’s alleged actions were brought to the attention of the FBI on Oct. 3, when his 13-year-old victim’s mother sent a tip to the agency, documents said. The mother told law enforcement that her son was a victim of “sextortion” from an unknown Snapchat account.
Court documents said the Snapchat account was later traced back to Garofalo due to matching email addresses and IP addresses. The IP addresses tracked matched Garofalo’s home address as well as a high school and a university associated with him, documents said.
In June, the teen informed Garofalo that he was 13 and afterwards sent sexually explicit photos and videos, which included his face.
In a court transcript of a conversation between Garofalo and a minor via Snapchat, Garofalo wrote that he had saved and shared the photos with others and would not delete them unless he received more photos from the teenager.
“Send stuff of ur boys naked n il ldelete,” he wrote to the minor, according to court documents.
When the teen said he wouldn’t send him any explicit photos of his friends, Garofalo replied, “Welp then im not deleting,” court documents said.
In Wicks’ denial of Garofalo’s bail, he wrote that “one of four phones seized as a result of the warrant which alone reveal at least 30 victims.”
According to previous reports, Valley Stream Superintendent Wayne Loper sent a letter to parents and staff that clarified that none of the alleged victims were Valley Stream Central High School students. In the letter, he reportedly referred to Garofalo as the “former lacross coach.”
In addition to the over $1.5 million in his parents, grandparents and aunt’s property, Garofalo’s application to release agreed to home detention at his parents’ house with no Wi-Fi or internet access, cell phone usage, ankle monitoring and weekly counseling sessions, according to documents. Wicks wrote in the denial that his release could not assure that Garofalo would not flee or endanger others.
“He has engaged in this behavior since he was 15 years old and, despite getting older, his victims remain in the same age range—between 12 and 16 years old. At this juncture, the government has already identified 30 victims after merely searching 1/3 of one of the four phones discovered in Defendant’s possession — two of which were hidden in Defendant’s room,” Wicks wrote.
