An off-duty NYPD cop from Briarwood was arrested on Thursday morning and booked at the 102nd Precinct in South Ozone Park for allegedly sending sexually explicit content via an online app to an undercover officer posing online as a 14-year-old girl.
Police Officer Travis DeSouza, 35, of Van Wyck Expressway, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on the night of April 24 on a criminal complaint charging him with attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors, official misconduct, and other related crimes, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Friday.
DeSouza was assigned to a Brooklyn precinct and worked for the NYPD’s Law Enforcement Explorers Program for young people.
According to the charges, an undercover operation began into the defendant’s conduct with participants in the Explorers program at the 75th Precinct in the City Line section, where he worked on the Military & Extended Leave Desk.
On Oct. 3, 2024, an undercover officer, posing as a 14-year-old girl, met with DeSouza, who oversaw the program. He asked her for her age and she responded “Fourteen.” That same day, the undercover officer, who is a sergeant in the Internal Affairs Bureau, asked him for his phone number and DeSouza mentioned that communications is important in his program. He gave her his number saying, “Of course, stop trying to bag me already.”
A separate undercover officer, purporting to be the 14-year-old, had conversations with DeSouza over the Snapchat app from Oct. 8 to Oct. 10, 2024. DeSouza set the messages to disappear immediately. On Oct. 10, DeSouza allegedly told the undercover officer, “You something else.” About a minute later, DeSouza sent the undercover a photo of a man wearing boxer shorts with his hand on his genitals. He then allegedly made sexually explicit comments, according to the charges. The conversations between the undercover officer and DeSouza took place while the undercover officer was in an NYPD office building in Queens.
“As alleged, this defendant took advantage of his position with the NYPD to prey on someone he thought was a 14-year-old who happened to be a police officer on assignment,” Katz said. “The Explorers is an amazing program and our kids need to trust and have faith in its leaders. Although he was told the ‘girl’ was just 14, the defendant allegedly sent explicit content to her.”
DeSouza was additionally charged with obscenity and endangering the welfare of a child. Queens Criminal Court Judge Maria Gonzalez ordered DeSouza to return to court on June 11. He was released on his own recognizance without bail. If convicted, DeSouza faces up to 1 ⅓ to four years in prison.
“Thank you to our partners in the NYPD for their assistance with this investigation,” Katz said.
DeSouza joined the NYPD in July 2011 and had no disciplinary history until Thursday when he was suspended without pay by the department, an NYPD spokesperson said Friday.
