From the Desk of Melinda Katz, Queens District Attorney
NEW YORK, NY (PRESS RELEASE) – Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Jose Nivelo, 43, has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl over a three-year period starting in 2012. The defendant was babysitting the girl in his Queens home when the abuse occurred.
District Attorney Katz said, “Instead of providing safe care for this young girl while her mother worked, the defendant has brought unimaginable trauma and pain to the victim by sexually abusing her for years. The protection of our children is paramount and has remained a top priority throughout my entire career in public service. The defendant will now serve a lengthy prison term for his despicable actions.”
Nivelo, of 97th Street, in East Elmhurst, Queens, was convicted by a jury on June 10, 2022, of course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant. Justice Pandit-Durant imposed todays sentence of 23 years in prison to be followed by 15 years post release supervision. The defendant will also be required to register as a sex offender.
Beginning in April 2012, said DA Katz, the defendant regularly picked up the seven-year-old girl from school, took her to his Hampton Street home and on numerous occasions groped her body and had her undress in front of him. When the defendant moved to an apartment on 97th Street in East Elmhurst, when the child turned eight, he escalated the abuse by repeatedly groping her, having her undress in front of him and engaging the child in acts of anal and oral sexual conduct.