ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY – An Orangetown man has been arrested and charged with attempted criminal sexual act with a minor and disseminating obscene materials to minors after being caught in an undercover operation to catch online child predators.
According to police, in June, Thomas Szeliga, 32, exchanged numerous text messages, photographs, and phone calls, sexually explicit in nature, with a female child who he met online and whom he believed to be 13 years old.
“In fact, he was communicating with an undercover officer who was posing as a 13-year-old female child. Szeliga planned to meet with the 13-year-old child to engage in a sexual conduct with her at a bowling alley in Rockland County,” the District Attorney’s office reported. “This undercover investigation was conducted by Rockland County District Attorney’s Office and was assisted by the Clarkstown Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, FBI Safe Streets Unit, Orangetown Police Department, and the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office.”
District Attorney Tom Walsh said, “The goal of these undercover investigations is to identify persons who engage in sexually explicit communication with children on the internet, arrange to engage in a sex act with the child, and then travel to meet a child for the purpose of having sexual relations.”
“I commend the investigative work of the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office Special Victims Unit. My office will continue holding undercover investigations and I caution anyone thinking they may be talking to a minor; it could be an Investigator from the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office,” he added.