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Roshan Samuel, 33, of Dunnings Drive in Tarrytown was convicted Monday following a jury trial of two counts of disseminating indecent material to minors in the first degree, Class D felonies, Acting Westchester County District Attorney James A. McCarty announced.
Samuel engaged in conversations of a sexual nature with a 14-year-old female student at Alexander Hamilton High School in Elmsford that he believed was 16 years old at various times in October 2014, McCarty said.
The conversations were in the form of text messages and voice calls through the Tango social media application, McCarty said.
On or about Oct. 21, 2014 Samuel sent text messages to the girl describing sexual acts and inviting her to engage in sexual activity with the defendant, McCarty said.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. that day, Samuel went to the parking lot of Alexander Hamilton High School where the child was observed on video entering and exiting a motor vehicle driven by the defendant, McCarty said, adding that, at that time, there was no physical contact between the two.
On or about and between Oct. 22, 2014 and Oct. 23, 2014. Samuel sent photographs of himself including two photographs of his genitals with explicit messages to the girl indicating that he wanted to have sex with her, McCarty said.
School officials were notified by the victim’s mother about the social media contacts between the defendant and her daughter, Samuel said. Police were then notified. School officials were able to provide police with surveillance video of the parking lot encounter as well as screen shots from the cellphone used by the victim.
After an extensive investigation, Samuel was arrested on Oct. 30, 2014 at the Village of Elmsford Police Department. He remains in the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla.
Samuel is due to be sentenced on April 20. He faces a sentence of 3 to 7 years in person.
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