New Sex Charges for Nassau Man

by Andrew Smith, staff writer
Originally published in Newsday, September 24, 2002

A Valley Stream man charged with sodomizing a 4-year-old Dix Hills girl has been indicted on new charges of doing the same to two teenage Suffolk girls.

Bruce Wernick, 44, used the Internet to solicit minors for sex, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said.

Wernick sodomized the Dix Hills toddler at the invitation of her father, authorities said.

That man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for sodomizing his daughter and other crimes.

The victims in the two new charges are between 15 and 17 years old, Tierney said.

These are the latest in Wernick's considerable legal problems.

Besides the earlier sodomy charge, he is charged in Nassau County with possession of a sexual performance by a child.

Authorities say he had more than 500 pornographic images of young children stored on his computer.

"They're completely unrelated charges," defense attorney Paul Gianelli of Hauppauge said of the new indictment. "At first blush they appear to be retaliatory."

Earlier this month, Gianelli got Suffolk County Court Judge Louis Ohlig to give up the case after the attorney for the Dix Hills girl's father accused Ohlig of being biased against Wernick.

Ohlig denied the accusation but agreed to let another judge handle the case anyway.

The new judge, Acting State Supreme Court Justice Michael Mullen, arraigned Wernick in Riverhead yesterday.

He added $10,000 to the $500,000 bail on which Wernick is being held.

Gianelli said the timing of the new charges made him think they were related to the flap over Ohlig.

The district attorney's office wanted Ohlig to retain the case.