Police Say a Popular Officer Sought Boys in Children's Chat Rooms
by Robert T DeMarco
Michael Costello, 39, a popular youth officer was arrested Friday night on charges that he used his computer to solicit sex from people he believed to be 14-year-old boys. They were, in fact, detectives conducting a sting, the police said.
He would log onto an AOL chat room named Queensnymfm using a sexually suggestive screen name, they said, and begin trolling the Internet for local teenage boys. According to the authorities, he would send those boys lurid come-ons and then try to arrange meetings for oral sex.
Michael Costello, 39, a popular youth officer in the 114th Precinct in Astoria, Queens, seemed like a model of community policing.
As supervising officer of the precinct's Law Enforcement Explorer unit, he helped teenagers do volunteer work and learn about law enforcement, community leaders said. With the Police Explorer Scouting program, he taught them responsibility and helped troubled young people with problems. He was the smiling man working the grill at community barbecues and the dedicated coordinator of youth basketball games.
But according to the authorities, once Officer Costello got home to his apartment in Bayside and sat at his computer, his commitment to youth took on a much darker side. He would log onto an AOL chat room named Queensnymfm using a sexually suggestive screen name, they said, and begin trolling the Internet for local teenage boys. According to the authorities, he would send those boys lurid come-ons and then try to arrange meetings for oral sex.
Officer Costello, a 14-year veteran of the force, was arrested Friday night on charges that he used his computer to solicit sex from people he believed to be 14-year-old boys. They were, in fact, detectives conducting a sting, the police said.
He was arraigned yesterday in Queens Criminal Court on charges of attempted use of a child in a sexual performance and several other charges, which carry a maximum sentence of seven years in jail, according to Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney.
Stewart London, a Manhattan lawyer who prosecutors said was representing Officer Costello, did not respond to phone messages left with his answering service yesterday. A spokesman for Mr. Brown said that a different lawyer argued at the arraignment that Officer Costello had never had criminal problems before.
Investigators first learned of Officer Costello's computer activity three weeks ago during a routine investigation into online crime, investigators said. According to a criminal complaint, during four computer sessions last week, he logged on to the chat room and wrote flirtatious comments to investigators using screen names linked to profiles of 14- and 15-year-old boys.
According to the complaint, he wrote online, "I'm not much into talking. I'm into meeting and doing. Tell me when U can go out and we will meet then."
Investigators contacted AOL officials, who identified the holder of the suggestive screen name as Officer Costello. Investigators obtained photographs that he had sent to other screen names. The authorities said the photographs were of Officer Costello.
In correspondences with one screen name carrying a profile of a
14-year-old boy, Officer Costello arranged a meeting at a Starbucks on Queens Boulevard at 8 on Friday night, prosecutors said.When he arrived at the Starbucks, detectives arrested him, prosecutors said, adding that he possessed lubricant and condoms.
Officer Costello has been suspended from duty, police officials said. Investigators said there was no evidence that he had actually abused any minors.
Nancy DiMeglio, 74, vice president of the 114th Precinct's community council, described Officer Costello as a popular officer and said she was "in dead shock" to hear the charges.
"I never saw any inkling of what they say he's done," she said. "I never heard him speak out of line or anything, never any foul language. Everyone considered him a straight-A guy."
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