June 4, 2007

Sexual assault, weapons, grand larceny charges in new indictment of cop impersonator

A 24-year-old Holbrook man indicted four months ago for posing as a cop and swindling his landlord out of a Toyota Land Cruiser was arraigned today on a new 54 count indictment charging him with rape, sodomy, attempted assault, grand larceny, weapons possession and other felony charges; alleged crimes he committed, Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said, while impersonating a police officer.

Henry Terry, of 31 Laurel Street, pleaded not guilty to the indictment unsealed by Suffolk County Judge C. Randall Hinrichs.

Spota said the ongoing investigation of Terry by district attorney detectives "has found teenage boys, a young woman, and a retired bus driver, among others, as terrified victims of a man they believed to be a police officer." 

The district attorney said the victims became ensnared in "a malevolent ruse that Terry expertly worked to terrorize and exploit each victim, from a 15 year old boy to a 56 year old man."

"By invoking a fear of violence and the authority of a badge and uniform, he manipulated these people.  They had no reason to doubt his ability to follow through on his threats or challenge what they logically interpreted as the legal authority of a law enforcement officer," District Attorney Spota said. 

The top counts Terry faces are two charges of first-degree forcible rape committed by the defendant in early and mid December of last year.  While acting as a caretaker of a St. James home, the 28-year-old female victim told detectives Terry threatened her with arrest and displayed a gun prior to the sexual assaults.  The rape charges are class "B" violent felonies, each punishable by a maximum prison term of up to 25 years.  The companion pair of first-degree sexual abuse charges are class "D" violent felonies, each punishable by a maximum of three to seven years in prison.

The other four sex crimes alleged in the indictment involved a 15-year-old male victim from New Jersey.  Terry is charged with four counts of third degree criminal sexual act (sodomy) and one count of endangering the welfare of a child (Cts. 23-27).  The sexual assaults involving the minor occurred during December of 2006 in Terry's residence at 31 Laurel Street in Holbrook.  The defendant met the 15 year old and three other young runaways in Greenwich Village in April of last year. 
Two counts (Cts. 21 and 22) of endangering the welfare of a child stem from the April 2006 meeting because Terry is alleged to have driven the three boys and one girl to his home at 2455 Union Boulevard in Islip where he served all four alcohol.

"Over half of the charges in the indictment are from incidents when the defendant brutalized three young men who lived with him," said Spota.  "These alleged crimes are indicative of Mr. Terry's total
confidence that his victims had no one to go to for help.  Each victim told our detectives of Terry's constant boasts that his "fellow officers" would never believe their allegations."

Counts 7 through 19 of the indictment are charges that cover the brutalization of an 18-year-old male houseguest during the summer of 2006 in Terry's residence at 129 Patchogue Avenue in Mastic.  The victim was handcuffed during two separate attacks.  In the first assault, Terry allegedly forced the teen into a closet and pulled the trigger of an unloaded handgun held to the victim's forehead (Ct. 7-9).  In another assault, the 18-year old was handcuffed and beaten.  During the assault, Terry forced the barrel of an unloaded handgun into the teen's mouth and pulled the trigger (Cts. 15-17).

Counts 41 through 51 of the indictment charging menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, unlawful imprisonment and other crimes involve a 20-year-old male who lived with the defendant at the Union Boulevard address in Islip.  The assaults, alleged to have occurred between March and May of last year, included an incident when Terry duct taped the victim's arms, legs and mouth and repeatedly held a lit cigarette lighter to his skin, threatening to set him on fire.  In May of 2006, the defendant directed a flame from an aerosol spray can at the victim's head.  In another incident, the defendant approached the victim silently from behind to place the barrel of a handgun on the back of his skull, pulling the trigger.  

Counts 48 through 51 arise from an incident involving the 20-year-old male and a retired bus driver from who Terry is alleged to have stolen (Ct. 20) approximately $120,000. The defendant handcuffed both men and while waving a handgun at both, he threatened that he intended "to get rid of them".

The second-degree grand larceny count (Ct. 20) against Terry alleged the defendant stole approximately $120,000 from the retired MTA driver Raymond Alleyne by increments of $15,000 from July through the end of November 2005.  Terry convinced the victim he was leading a criminal investigation of financial fraud by the Freemasons who he alleged had targeted Alleyne for fraud.  The victim gave Terry his money, including his $21,000 retirement check and two credit cards, "for safekeeping".  Grand larceny in the second degree is a class "C" felony punishable by a prison term of seven and one-half to 15 years in prison. 

Indictment counts 30 and 33 through 38 involve a similar fraud of Raymond Pesinkowski, the defendant's landlord.  In this alleged swindle, Terry told the victim that his criminal investigation found evidence that the Aryan Brotherhood had stolen the man's identity.  Terry took custody of six Pesinkowski credit cards "for investigative purposes", and commandeered the victim's wife's vehicle, a 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser, which he later sold to a friend.  When the landlord asked for his vehicle to be returned, Terry explained the Federal Bureau of Investigation had taken the vehicle to Detectives report Terry charged $40,000 worth of good and services to the victim's charge cards.

Three crimes alleged in the indictment charge Terry with causing the brutal deaths of two cats.  "The human victims of his crimes described these despicable acts," DA Spota said.  "Both cats were set afire by the defendant after he doused them in gasoline. We also have evidence indicating that over the span of two months last year, the defendant starved his dog, a pit bull mix he had muzzled and chained in his backyard in Holbrook.  He simply stopped feeding the animal."  

Henry Terry was arrested by district attorney detective investigators on January 25, 2007 and arraigned on third degree grand larceny charges and criminal impersonation of a police office on February 7.  He has been held in lieu of $75,000 cash bail, or $150,000 bond, in the Suffolk County jail. 

After violating his probation for a 2002 guilty plea to reckless endangerment in Nassau County, Terry pleaded guilty in May of 2004 to criminal impersonation of a police officer and received an upstate prison sentence.  Terry was paroled in December, 2004.

The district attorney said while the defendant "had an expertise in choosing his victims and was adept in maintaining a fictional police profile", Henry Terry's con "was ultimately made authentic by purchasing a costume - a law enforcement persona available on the Internet to anyone for less than a hundred dollars".

Spota urged state lawmakers to devote resources to solving the problem that "enables criminals to so easily acquire police badges and uniforms to use to victimize law abiding citizens".

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