Ex-Bay Shore teacher Thomas Bernagozzi, charged with sex abuse, cataloged thousands of students' images, detective says

A former Bay Shore teacher cataloged decades-old photo negatives of his students similar to how child porn collectors organize digital images, a detective testified in Suffolk County Criminal Court.

Suffolk Police Det. Patrick Boyles said a large percentage of the images seized from Thomas Bernagozzi's Babylon home were of young boys, including printed photographs of the complainants at trial.

"Many were posed topless," Boyles told the jury seated before acting Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis in Riverhead. "Their shorts riding up. They were posed, not candid types of photographs."

The detective said more than 12,400 negatives were removed from the home, including 4,600 shots Bernagozzi took of boys attending Bay Shore schools, including 1,400 shirtless images. About 1,300 images were of young female students, he said. While most of the shirtless images showed children playing sports or at a beach, six strips of negatives from before the abuse alleged in the indictment showed bare-chested boys inside a classroom.

The negatives — which were digitized and shown to the jury over several hours of testimony Thursday and Friday, slowing the trial and causing tensions to rise in the courtroom — were kept in envelopes with handwritten notes that contained some of the boys' names. One of the complainants in the case was often the only name written on the envelopes.

Boyles said that same complainant, whom Newsday is not naming because he's an alleged victim of a sex crime, was also depicted in 268 printed photographs found in the home. An additional 20 printed images showed another complainant in the case, whose name was also found on some of the envelopes of negatives.

Asked by Assistant District Attorney Dana Castaldo if he made any observations from the cataloging of negatives, Boyles told the jury that writing the names on the envelopes ensured "easy access for future reference."

"Similar to someone now who has a collection of child porn they catalog on a digital device," the detective testified.

Bernagozzi, 77, is charged with sodomy and sexual conduct against a child for the alleged abuse involving the 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 abuse began in the late 1980s, he testified this week. The other was 7 when he met Bernagozzi nearly a decade later, according to his testimony. In both instances the abuse continued for several years, they said.

Bernagozzi is also facing five counts of possession of a sexual performance of a child for five photo negatives that show a different former student posed at Jones Beach with his private parts exposed, police witnesses testified.

The prolonged displaying of the digitized negatives caused tempers to flare late Thursday after prosecutors showed each image, many of them not relating directly to any of the charges, from 29 envelopes as Boyles read the notes written on the negatives.

Defense attorney Steven Politi, of Central Islip, accused prosecutors of presenting the evidence that way to repeatedly read names of other boys whose alleged abuse was not indicted due to statutes of limitations. Testimony of their alleged abuse was prohibited by Wilutis at trial.

"Their goal is to continually say names," Politi argued after the jury went home Thursday evening. "So the jury infers that the statute of limitations has run and these other boys who are constantly being named are other 'victims.' That's their goal and it does not take a genius to figure out what they're doing."

Castaldo and fellow Assistant District Attorney Macdonald Drane took exception to Politi telling them how to present their case.

"It's voluminous, but the only person to blame is" Bernagozzi, Castaldo shot back. "He did this. Not us. He wrote their names."

Wilutis allowed the process to continue but urged prosecutors to pare down the number of envelopes they presented as testimony from Boyles continued and the trial neared completion of its third full week of testimony from prosecution witnesses.

Politi called attention during cross examination to the cluttered nature of Bernagozzi's home, underscoring that his client kept old items in the garage where much of the evidence presented at trial was found. An old Macintosh computer that no longer worked and a bag from Genovese — a retailer that closed 20 years ago — were among the items mentioned during the detective's testimony. 

Boyles said some of the items in the garage dated back to at least the 1970s.

"The garage was very full with stuff," the detective told the jury. "There was basically just a walking path [from door to door]."

Politi also questioned Boyles about his witness interviews, training and understanding of criminal procedural law. 

The trial continues in Riverhead on Monday.

 Suffolk police opened the investigation into Bernagozzi, with Boyles serving as lead detective, after 45 former Bay Shore students filed Child Victims Act claims against the district alleging the retired teacher sexually abused them, prosecutors have said.

Most of the lawsuits, which were allowed under a look-back window from 2019-21, involved 8-year-old boys who were students in his classes at Gardiner Manor and Mary G. Clarkson elementary schools or participated in an after-school sports program he ran.

All three complainants in the criminal case have settled their claims with the school district or its insurers, court records show.

The district, which a civil jury found liable for negligence for failing to investigate abuse claims against the teacher, has paid more than $75 million to settle 42 of the civil complaints, with additional settlement funds being paid by insurance companies. 

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.