DA: Middle Island man sentenced to 25 years for child sex assault

A Middle Island man was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting the six-year-old daughter of his then live-in girlfriend, Suffolk prosecutors said.

Lucas Hires, 42, was found guilty in April of one count each of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and endangering the welfare of a child.

State Supreme Court Timothy Mazzei Wednesday also sentenced Hires to 20 years of post-release supervision.

“The defendant violated an innocent child in the most horrible way imaginable,” said Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney in a statement. “And while this sentence will prevent him from hurting other children for a significant amount of time, the trauma he caused will last forever.”

Hires' defense attorney at trial, Ves Mitev of Stony Brook, declined to comment on the sentence.

In June of 2019, the victim, now nine-years-old, told her mother that she was subjected to repeated sexual abuse by Hires for nearly a year, beginning when she was six-years-old, according to prosecutors. The victim’s mother then notified the Suffolk County Police Department.

The police investigation included the recording of several cellphone calls between the mother and Hires, as well as the recording of an in-person conversation between the two, prosecutors said.

Authorities also recovered bedding from the victim’s bedroom, authorities said. An analysis by the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory, officials said, matched Hires' DNA to that recovered from the sheets and comforter.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.