Ex-Bay Shore teacher Thomas Bernagozzi guilty of sexually abusing students, jury finds

Former teacher Thomas Bernagozzi, who for decades taught children in Bay Shore elementary schools, was convicted Friday of sexually abusing three of them in a case where prosecutors said the defendant lavished the boys with gifts and took them on elaborate trips to New York City and other extra-curriculum activities.

A Riverhead jury of five men and seven women found him guilty of felony sex crimes in a case that rocked generations of Bay Shore students and families. Dozens of related civil suits filed by former students against the district for failing to protect them from Bernagozzi’s abuse have cost Bay Shore schools $75 million in settlements.

The jury found Bernagozzi guilty on five of seven charges, including sodomy, sexual conduct of a child, and three counts of possessing sexual performance of a child, all felonies. He faces 25 years on the first two counts.

There were gasps in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. Some people hugged and cried.

The defendant didn't seem to show any emotion. Officers escorted him out of the courtroom after the verdict.

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney the verdict holds Bernagozzi accountable for his crimes.

"For 50 years, one of the most prolific serial pedophiles of our time was hiding in plain sight under the guise of a trusted teacher and mentor in the Bay Shore Union Free School District," Tierney said. "Thomas Bernagozzi escaped consequence by relying on the trust that his young and innocent students placed in him, and the shame and stigma that they would feel as they aged. Unfortunately, Bernagozzi was able to evade prosecution in several instances because his crimes were outside of the statute of limitations."

Bernagozzi, 77, of Babylon, was charged with sodomy and sexual conduct against a child for the alleged abuse involving two students, both of whom attended Bay Shore elementary schools but were assigned to other teachers in third grade, the level he primarily taught between 1970 and 2000. One of the students was 4 years old when the alleged abuse began in the late 1980s, prosecutors said. The other was 7 years old when he met Bernagozzi nearly a decade later. In both instances the alleged abuse continued for several years, prosecutors said.

Bernagozzi is also charged with five counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child for photo negatives dating back to 1987, which prosecutors said police found in a dresser drawer in the retired teacher’s bedroom while executing a search warrant in December 2023. The negatives, later developed by police, showed another of his 8-year-old former students with his genitals exposed in successive images taken at a public beach.

Prosecutors began the trial by alleging in opening statements that Bernagozzi took advantage of the "blind trust" of parents when he abused a pair of students for his own sexual gratification. A popular teacher in the district's elementary schools for 30 years, Bernagozzi created extracurricular programs to form "twisted and manipulative" relationships with young boys, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney MacDonald Drane told the jury.

The sports and theater programs placed the students alone with the teacher, who Drane said created a "ruse" to change their clothes and apply talcum powder to their bodies, which he touched with his hands and mouth to "fulfill his sexual desires."

"There is no explanation that anyone can make for a teacher putting powder on a student’s" private parts, Drane said. "For that matter, there’s no innocent explanation for any adult to do that to a child."

Defense attorney Steve Politi, of Central Islip, told the jury he believed the allegations against his client were "fabricated" by men who targeted the teacher by filing lawsuits for the "singular purpose of making money." He called the criminal case a "strategic decision by attorneys" and said the allegations defy logic and that the former students are looking for someone to blame for their personal failures.

Politi noted that the three complainants never reported the abuse to parents, police or school officials at the time and told their stories only when contacted by a civil attorney more than 20 years later. All three complainants in the criminal case have settled civil claims with the school district or its insurers, court records show. Newsday is not naming them because they are alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Politi urged the jury to consider "the lack of evidence." 

"We contend that these crimes never occurred," he said. "My client sits there vehemently denying the these charges with every fiber of his being."

Bernagozzi was arrested on Dec. 21, 2023, after Suffolk police and prosecutors opened an investigation into him following Child Victims Act claims filed by 45 former Bay Shore students who alleged the retired teacher sexually abused them.

Despite the large volume of claims, prosecutors have said only the abuse allegedly endured by the students in the indictment could be charged under state law. They then sought for the judge to allow testimony from 36 additional students, but Wilutis ruled that allowing such evidence would "produce a tsunami of prejudice" against Bernagozzi.

Prosecutors told the jury they will hear testimony from all three students in the indictment and see evidence that the teacher lavished the boys with gifts and took them on elaborate trips to New York City, including Broadway shows and professional sporting events.

Drane described Bernagozzi's relationship with one of the boys as "more like a romantic relationship" than student and teacher. He said the students were too young to understand the inappropriate nature of the relationship at the time and the alleged abuse carried a stigma that led to personal problems into adult life.

"He was someone that they thought they could trust," Drane said. "And it wasn't just them ... their parents trusted him too."

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.