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.