Ex-firefighter pleads in Flush the Johns case

A Lynbrook man accused of patronizing a prostitute pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge after objecting that he should not be required to perform 35 hours of community service because he had been a volunteer firefighter in South Hempstead for 21 years.

Vincent Viceconte, 41, was one of 104 men swept up in the Flush the Johns anti-prostitution sting in Nassau County in April and May of 2013. He was living in South Hempstead at the time and was forced out of his position with the hamlet's volunteer fire department when the arrests were announced.

"He was forced to give up the job he loved," his lawyer, Timothy Aldridge of Levittown, told Judge Rhonda Fischer before the trial started in Hempstead. "He objects to community service after giving to the community for 21 years."

Aldridge said that if prosecutors dropped the community service requirement, "then we could conclude this case here and now."

But prosecutors refused and the nonjury trial began with Assistant District Attorney Abigail Wallace telling the judge in her opening statement that Viceconte had answered a sexually suggestive ad on a website and then met a woman he assumed to be a prostitute at a hotel in East Garden City. The woman was an undercover officer and Viceconte was arrested.

Aldridge was scheduled to make his opening statement in the afternoon, but when court resumed, Viceconte told the judge he wanted to plead guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct and would perform the 35 hours of community service and attend a class to "educate" men who patronize prostitutes.

Viceconte declined to comment as he left court.

After insisting for a year that the men plead guilty to the top charge, District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced in June that all the men, even those who had pleaded guilty, would be allowed to plead to the reduced charge if they performed community service and went to the class.

There have been a total of 82 guilty pleas. Four men were acquitted and one was convicted at nonjury trials.

Eleven cases are still pending.