Steven Arey, ex-Islip gym teacher, sentenced to 6 months for helping run brothels in Suffolk

The former Islip gym teacher who prosecutors said co-managed a Holbrook brothel with a disgraced former Suffolk police officer was sentenced to 6 months in jail on Wednesday — but it’s unlikely he will spend any time behind bars.

Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei approved a plea deal in Riverhead that will allow Steven Arey, 55, to perform 840 hours of community service rather than serve his sentence in a county jail.

Kevin Ward, the chief of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Public Corruption Bureau, told Mazzei the plea deal was a result of Arey’s cooperation in the case and his willingness to testify against his three co-defendants.

Arey, an Islip resident, was facing enterprise corruption and 27 counts of third-degree promoting prostitution, before he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of third-degree promoting prostitution.

"Mr. Arey has been a law-abiding citizen his whole life. This was really a misstep," said Arey’s attorney, Michael Brown of Central Islip.

Arey is a family man, Brown added, and a well-respected coach and educator. "He wanted to accept responsibility," Brown said. "He acknowledged that he was wrong and wants to move forward."

Arey, who had been free on bail, declined to discuss the sentence with Newsday as he left the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex in Riverhead on Wednesday.

Brown said Arey, who had been suspended by the Islip Union Free School District following his arrest last year, has retired. An Islip school official said Arey, a 26-year veteran of Islip schools, has not worked for the district since August.

Arey was charged in an indictment unsealed in October 2024 that also named George Trimigliozzi, a former Suffolk police officer and the co-manager of the Holbrook brothel, as a defendant. Suffolk police said Trimigliozzi was fired after he pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution and other charges on Sept. 12.

Authorities in Suffolk began investigating the prostitution operation after they said Trimigliozzi, who was stationed in the Third Precinct, abandoned his police duties on March 19, 2021, and responded to a reported robbery at the Holbrook brothel, driving nearly 90 mph in a patrol car. His presence at the scene raised questions that led to the arrests, officials have said. 

On Monday, Mazzei sentenced Trimigliozzi, an 18-year veteran of the police department, to 364 days in a county jail for third-degree promoting prostitution and 364 days for official misconduct. Mazzei ordered the sentences to run consecutively.

Mazzei also sentenced Trimigliozzi, 56, of Islip, to 30 days in a county jail on an unlawful imprisonment charge which stems from his conduct while on a date with a woman he met on a dating app. Mazzei ordered that sentence to run concurrently with the other sentences.

The Holbrook brothel and a West Babylon brothel were part of a criminal enterprise operated by self-described mafia associate Frank Saggio, 61, of West Islip. Dozens of women worked at the brothels as sex workers, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Saggio and Trimigliozzi forced the sex workers, some of whom spoke limited English, to sign leases as payment for using the brothels’ suites. The operation included the Holbrook brothel, located on Sunrise Highway and known as Suite 3 — American Girls Spa, Suite 4 — Spa and Suite 5 — Reiki for Healing, as well as a location in West Babylon known as the Tunnel of Love.

Saggio pleaded guilty on Sept. 12, to operating a prostitution operation and acknowledged that he required sex workers to pay monthly fees ranging from $6,000 (Holbrook location) to $12,000 (West Babylon location). Saggio is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 18, although Mazzei agreed to postpone sentencing until he is sentenced in the Eastern District of New York on a federal mail fraud case.

Dana Ciardullo, 33, of North Bellmore and Saggio’s girlfriend, pleaded guilty on Sept. 12 to third-degree promoting prostitution and is expected to receive a sentence of 6 months in jail when she is sentenced on Dec. 18. Ciardullo admitted she was the manager of the West Babylon brothel.

Investigators from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, with help from the FBI and the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, used surveillance, informants and undercover police officers to build a case, which went before a special grand jury.

Prosecutors had alleged in a civil forfeiture complaint against Saggio and Ciardullo that the brothel operation produced nearly $2 million in revenue for Saggio, which he laundered through corporations to purchase real estate on Fire Island.