Cops: Sex offender stalked high school girls

A convicted sex offender who detectives said was living illegally in Hicksville was arrested Thursday by Suffolk police and charged with stalking Huntington Station high school girls.

John Ferranti, 56, a Level 3 sex offender, was arrested by special victims section detectives as he sat in his parked car at Kilburn Avenue and Railroad Street in Huntington Station, near where some students gather before school.

A Level 3 sex offender is considered by state criminal justice services to be someone at the highest risk of recidivism, police said.

Detectives said they started an investigation Tuesday after Second Precinct School Resource Officer Drew Fiorillo was told by Jarrett Stein, the school district safety chief, that a female student had reported being followed near her bus stop.

Special Victims Section Det. Sgt. Michael Pirone said of Ferranti, "He is one of the oldest [registered sex offenders]." He said Ferranti was convicted of raping a woman in the 1970s.

Stein, the school safety chief, recounted Thursday how the student had told a school official that she felt "strange and uncomfortable" because a "creepy man" had been stopping by her bus stop from time to time.

According to police, the student told Fiorillo that the man had been talking to her and other female students, offering them rides to school and following them in his car while they walked to and from the bus stop, at Crombie Street and Kilburn Avenue three to four times a week since September.

He was charged with 4th-degree stalking, endangering the welfare of a child, and failure to register as a sex offender for not notifying police that he had moved to 47 Acres Lane in Hicksville last June.

Ferranti's registered address was 214 W. Pulaski Rd. in Huntington Station.

"None of the kids were hurt," Pirone said. "They were afraid, but none of them were hurt. . . . Hopefully, we did prevent something."

Ferranti is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in First District Court in Central Islip.

District Superintendent John Finello said, "This is a perfect example of how the school resource officer program works together with the school district in a cooperative effort to ensure the safety of all students."

With Bill Mason