Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney held a news conference Tuesday to provide further details about four people who were charged with multiple counts of promoting prostitution in the county - including a Suffolk police officer and former Islip High School teacher.

Tierney said Suffolk County Police Officer George Trimigliozzi, Islip High School teacher Steven Arey, Frank Saggio and Dana Ciardullo, all allegedly participated in a criminal enterprise that promoted prostitution in Suffolk County.

Trimigliozzi, who Tierney said was with the Suffolk Police Department for 18 years, and Arey, a physical education teacher who worked for the Islip School District for 26 years helped to "manage" a prostitution business for Saggio out of a now shuttered strip mall on Sunrise Highway in Holbrook.

Tierney called Saggio "the leader of a criminal enterprise that profited from the systematic promotion of prostitution at two locations in Suffolk County."

According to Tierney, sex workers were forced to pay so-called "fees" as high as $12,000 a month.

When investigators searched Saggio's West Islip home, Tierney said they found more than $100,000 hidden throughout the house.

Tierney said the alleged criminal enterprise all came to light in March 2021, when one of the sex workers called Trimigliozzi and told him a customer had been robbed.

According to GPS data from Trimigliozzi's patrol car, Tierney said it showed he raced from Islip Terrace to the brothel.

"Trimigliozzi allegedly abandoned his post without notifying the Suffolk County Police Department and sped at speeds of almost 90 mph to the prostitution business. So he traveled 6 miles outside his precinct, into the adjoining 5th Precinct area, without permission and he never obviously documented these actions," he said. Trimigliozzi and Arey are facing a variety of charges said Tierney, and Saggio is facing more than 50 counts of promoting prostitution and two counts of sex trafficking.

Ciardullo, who Tierney said was Saggio's girlfriend, is also facing more than a dozen charges of promoting prostitution.

At Tuesday's news conference, Tierney and other law enforcement officials said Trimigliozzi was suspended without pay by the Suffolk County Police Department in August 2024 and Arey was suspended before the school year.

If convicted, Tierney says all four defendants could be in prison from eight to 25 years.