A former Staten Island cop convicted of sexually exploiting four children — two of whom he met as part of his NYPD duties — will spend 40 years behind bars for his sex crimes, a Brooklyn judge ruled Thursday.
Christopher Terranova even went as far as buying a second home in Texas to be close to a teenage boy he was sexually abusing, and sent explicit chat posts to a teenage robbery victim.
Terranova, who was found guilty at trial in November of sexual exploitation of children and coercion and enticement of a minor, told a Brooklyn Federal Court judge he “was in a very dark place” because three of his fellow 121st Precinct officers had committed suicide.
“To cope, I began using alcohol,” he said.
Terranova apologized to his four victims, but denied sexually abusing two of them, telling one, “You know and I know that I never touched you,” and telling another, “Our relationship was certainly verbally inappropriate, but nothing physical began until you were 17.”
Terranova, 35, was convicted after a five-day trial in November on allegations he started inappropriate relationships with four underage boys, chatting them up by phone and on social media, and in two cases, engaging in “hands-on sexual activities” with them. The former cop denied the charges.
Jeff Bachner for New York Daily News
The 121st Precinct on Forest Ave. in Staten Island. (Jeff Bachner for New York Daily News)
“This case is not about alcoholism. The defendant’s actions were calculated,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Bennek. “He made multiple trips to Texas. He bought a house.”
She added, “This defendant has left child after child deeply traumatized, with wounds that they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.”
Terranova asked for the mandatory minimum 15 years in prison, with his lawyer, Vinoo Varghese, pointing out that he was a “gay man struggling with his own identity.”
Judge Kiyo Matsumoto countered, though, “Confusion about one’s sexuality does not equate with the acts, or excuse the acts Mr. Terranova committed against his young victims.”
She added that Terranova repeatedly minimized what he did in his statements to probation officials, characterizing them as merely “inappropriate” or errors in judgment. In one recorded conversation two months before trial, he called one of the victims a “little loser” for telling his mother about the abuse, Matsumtot pointed out.
“He ignores the harm that he has caused young victims,” the judge said. “His conduct has eroded the public trust in law enforcement.
Terranova, who joined the NYPD in 2011, first drew the attention of investigators after he reached out to one of the teens, a 15-year-old boy who showed up at the 121st Precinct stationhouse on Staten Island in March 2023 to report he was the victim of a robbery.
The cop used an NYPD database to find the teen’s cell phone number and texted him, “I just wanted to reach out to see if you were doing ok after the incident, I hate seeing these things happen to good Guys like yourself.”
He asked to link up with the boy through Instagram and Snapchat, and his messages on Snapchat turned sexual, culminating with him sending the teen a photo of his penis.
Terranova was arrested on state charges in May 2023, and that led to more allegations, and federal charges in December 2023.
Investigators learned about the Texas victim after that initial arrest, when they found a trove of photos and evidence in a locked safe in the ex-cop’s house.
He met the boy through social media at the end of 2019, when the teen was 15. Terranova and the teen met several times in Texas to have sex, and he bought a second home a few minutes away from where the boy lived.
Terranova targeted a third boy, a 15-year-old family friend, in 2022, connecting with him through social media, and forced the boy to perform oral sex on him after picking him up from a birthday.
He met a fourth victim, a 12-year-old boy, in 2022, when he was stationed at a football field where the preteen was playing youth football, the feds allege. He communicated with the youngster for months, asking about masturbation and requesting the youngster send penis pictures to him.
Terranova was suspended from the NYPD after his initial arrest and left the force in September 2023.
A sentencing memo filed by prosecutors earlier this month described a fifth boy not covered by the trial charges — a 13-year-old runaway with a history of bipolar disorder who cops located after he left home in 2018. Terranova tried to mentor the teen about his sexuality, then tried to engage him in sexually explicit conversations, according to the court filing.
“The victims showed courage in coming forward to expose this predator, and the sentence imposed ensures that no other child will be harmed by the defendant while he spends decades in prison,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Thursday.
