Molested Boys, Filmed Explicit Acts
A 54-year-old man once named “Rochdale Village Little League Coach of the Year” has pled guilty to sexually abusing three boys at his residence between July 2009 and August 2010 and using two other teenage boys in a sexual performance which he filmed, it was announced.
He was identified by Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown as David C. Hartshorn, 54, of 144th Avenue in Rochdale Village, who has been held without bail since his arrest in February 2011. He entered a guilty plea last Thursday, Aug. 23, to one count of first-degree criminal sexual act, two counts of second-degree criminal sexual act and two counts of use of a child in a sexual performance before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter.
Hartshorn is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 28; Buchter indicated that, at that hearing, he would order him to serve 18 years in prison.
“The defendant has admitted being a sexual predator who took advantage of his position as a Little League baseball coach to get close to young boys before sexually abusing them,” Brown said. “The consequences of his actions can have a lasting and profound impact on his victims. For that reason alone, the in- tended prison sentence to be meted out by the court is more than warranted.”
In pleading guilty, Hartshorn admitted that he sexually abused or had inappropriate sexual contact with three teenage boys on various occasions between July 2009 and August 2010. During that time, he filmed two additional teenage boys engaging in sexual acts with one another.
A search warrant executed at Hartshorn’s residence led to the recovery of many movies on various formats-including VHS and DVD-showing young boys engaging in sexual acts and images of small children less than 10 years of age en- gaged in similar activity.
The allegations came to light when one of the boys told his mother, who then contacted police.
Assistant District Attorney Debra J. Bresnahan of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Mar- jory D. Fisher, bureau chief, and Kenneth M. Appelbaum and Lucinda C. Suarez, deputy bureau chiefs, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
