SUFFOLK COUNTY---A 32-year-old Southampton town police officer has been indicted and charged with using his police power and authority to coerce and solicit sex from local women over the past five years.

According to the indictment unsealed in county court, two of the four victims avoided their arrest by having sexual relations with officer Guy Giammatteo. One woman, a female fugitive wanted on an outstanding warrant, evaded jail on three occasions by submitting to the officer's sexual demands. Another woman agreed to have sex with Giammatteo in exchange for his telling her the time and place of a narcotics enforcement action planned by Southampton town police.

County Judge Barbara Kahn unsealed a 14-count grand jury indictment charging Giammatteo with four counts of bribe receiving, three counts of second degree coercion and seven charges of official misconduct. The top count of third degree bribe receiving is a class D felony punishable by a maximum prison term of two and one-third to 7 years in prison.

The defendant pleaded not guilty. Judge Kahn set Giammatteo's bail at $10,000 cash. Giammatteo was suspended from the police force last January.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said the evidence of Giammatteo's crimes "reveals the defendant as a sexual predator in a police uniform. His depravity spurred him to use his badge and his knowledge of criminal investigations in his community to create opportunities to sexually exploit women," said Spota.

Giammatteo became a Southampton town police office on April 10, 2002. He was employed as a part-time police officer in Southampton and Quogue Villages in 2001.

District Attorney Spota cited the indictment's description of the defendant's 2004 encounter with an unsuspecting Southampton woman "as brazen as it is appalling".

"Under the pretext of checking on her welfare after a domestic dispute, the defendant entered the woman's home. He then exposed himself and said he wanted her to perform oral sodomy upon him."

"It is difficult to fully comprehend the terror she experienced," Spota said. Indictment - Guy Giammatteo - Ind #764-07    3-15-07

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