Ex-Holbrook motel employee James Seccadanari charged with promoting prostitution

A former motel employee was charged with promoting prostitution Monday night after an investigation found he recruited at least three women for commercial sex work at the business, Suffolk County police said.

Last fall, police received a tip during a Highway Patrol arrest that said James Seccadanari, a former maintenance employee of MacArthur Inn at 4444 Veterans Memorial Hwy., recruited women for the purpose of conducting commercial sex work.

Seccadanari was charged by prosecutors of placing sexual classified ads for three women in exchange for cash in January and February, according to a criminal complaint. Court records described the women as victims, who were acquaintances. Detectives said Seccadanari recruited the women and could have possibly recruited others.

Police arrested Seccadanari at a home in Brentwood on Monday night.

Seccadanari pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony third-degree promoting prostitution during an arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip. A judge issued orders of protection for the women and let Seccadanari leave the courtroom, which he did hiding his face under a gray hoodie, and placed him under supervised release. The charge was not bail eligible.   

Seccadanari's attorney, Toni Marie Angeli, said he denied the allegations. The charge was filed for profits from prostitution of a person under the age of 19, but Angeli said the three women were all in their 30s. 

A friend of Seccadanari who attended Tuesday's hearing, A.J. O'Sullivan, said Seccadanari lived and worked at the motel in exchange for food. He said Seccadanari didn't know the women or run a brothel.

The MacArthur Inn was closed earlier this year after a Town of Islip investigation into code violations, police said. It was also the site of a 2013 killing of Shalece Cunningham, 24, of Bay Shore, who was working as a prostitute before she was shot in the head by Stoker Olukotun Williams. Williams was later sentenced to life in prison without parole. 

A Newsday investigation found that authorities had documented about 60 motels on Long Island, in addition to the MacArthur Inn, where at least one incident of sex trafficking, prostitution or case of sex with a minor had taken place. Authorities, including the Suffolk County human trafficking unit, said they frequently monitor the motels for possible trafficking, drug and weapons activity.

Anyone who has information on Seccadanari or other suspects are asked to call the Human Trafficking Investigations Unit at 631-854-7512 or Crime Stoppers at 800-220-8477.