Lacrosse coach ‘sextorted’ kids online, threatened to blow up teen hockey star’s dreams

21-year-old John Garofalo was accused of sextorting multiple minors, including 13-year-old with dreams of playing hockey in the pros

Former assistant Valley Stream lax coach used Snapchat to sexually extort children: ‘Send Stuff of Ur Boys Naked,’ federal authorities say

A trusted youth sports coach who was supposed to mentor teenagers instead used social media to hunt them down, blackmail them for sexually explicit images, and threaten to destroy their futures if they didn’t comply with his sick demands, court records indicate.

Joseph Garofalo, a former assistant lacrosse coach at Valley Stream Central High School, pleaded guilty in federal court in Central Islip on Thursday to sexual exploitation of a child, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI announced.

Garofalo was accused of sexually blackmailing, or sextorting, more than 30 minor victims he targeted through Snapchat, according to the FBI, as laid out in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The FBI said he blackmailed the children into sending multiple sexually explicit photos and videos through social media threads.

Now 21, Garofalo was nabbed last April following an FBI investigation that exposed his predatory online behavior. Authorities said he weaponized his Snapchat account to exploit vulnerable kids, preying on their fears and ambitions to coerce them into producing child pornography.

With his guilty plea, Garofalo faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and possibly up to 30 years behind bars, authorities said.

“This case is a stark reminder that those entrusted with the care and mentorship of children must be held to the highest standards. Our Office will relentlessly pursue predators like this defendant who victimize the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Joseph Nocella, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to protect victims and hold sexual predators accountable,” he added.

The defendant threatened to share naked photos and videos of the minors unless they sent more naked photos or sent explicit media of their friends, which is colloquially known as “sextortion,” federal authorities said.

The child had made the mistake in June 2024 of sending explicit photos and videos that included his face to Garofalo, authorities said. He did this after telling Garofalo’s Snapchat account that he was just 13 years old, according to authorities.

The teen thought they’d been deleted. But he was wrong.

Court records include a gut-wrenching transcript of the Snapchat conversation they say shows how ruthlessly Garofalo exploited the terrified child.

When the boy reached back out in October to check if the images were gone, Garofalo coldly informed him they were very much still in his possession — and he’d already shared them before.

“Do you still have those videos,” the 13-year-old asked.

“Yes y [why],” Garofalo responded hours later.

The boy’s worry comes across in the messages. “Did you send them to anyone,” he wrote.

“Have I before yes,” came the chilling reply, according to a criminal complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Michelle Royal.

The young hockey player tried to reason with the coach, according to court documents, explaining that the images could destroy everything he’d worked for.

“Can you delete them?” he said.

“Gimme a reason to,” Garofalo shot back, the complaint says.

The teenager then replies: “Because I am kinda good at hockey and not trying to be cocky but I might be go pro and it could kinda ruin my career.”

Garofalo, in the complaint, seemed unmoved in his next missive.

“That’s j not a reason,” he typed, the court documents indicate. “U blocked me… So im not gonna delete them for a guy that blocked me unless he gives me a good reason to.”

When the victim explained he’d blocked Garofalo earlier because “i was scared,” the coach attempted to make a sordid deal, the court documents said.

“Send stuff of ur boys naked n il delete,” Garofalo suggested — asking the boy to sexually exploit his own friends in exchange for the deletion of his own images, the court documents allege.

The boy refused, writing: “Dude i would never take a picture of my friend naked. I would get safe sported.”

Garofalo’s response: “Welp then im not deleting.”

The victim had told investigators he initially believed Garofalo when he claimed to have deleted the material months earlier, authorities said.

The evidence was so disturbing that Snapchat itself had flagged Garofalo’s account months earlier, the complaint said. In May 2024, the platform reported the account to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after detecting three files containing apparent child sexual abuse material. The images, according to the NCMEC report, depicted minors in ways “intended or designed to elicit a sexual response in the viewer.”

Another victim, identified in court papers only as “John Doe,” was just 16 when Garofalo targeted him between September and October 2024. The teenager told investigators that Garofalo’s Snapchat account had solicited the illegal images directly from him, the federal complaint says.

By day, Garofalo was working with young athletes as an assistant lacrosse coach at a Valley Stream high school. By night, authorities say, he was trolling Snapchat for child victims.

At just 20 years old, Garofalo was also a college student at a local college.

The FBI’s digital forensics confirmed who controlled the criminal Snapchat account, Royal said in the complaint.

The account was registered to an email address in Garofalo’s name. IP address records showed the account had been accessed from three telling locations: Garofalo’s home residence, the Valley Stream high school where he coached, and the college he attended.

When FBI agents showed up at his home last April to execute a search warrant, Garofalo agreed to talk after being read his Miranda rights, Royal said in the complaint.

What he told them was damning. The criminal complaint explains that Garofalo admitted he controlled the Snapchat account, that he solicited minors for child sexual abuse material and that he had that material stored on his electronic devices. And when agents showed him images recovered from his account, he recognized them, Royal said in the complaint.

He was arrested that same day.

The FBI’s Long Island Child Exploitation Task Force led the investigation. Special Agent Michelle Royal, who has specialized in child sexual exploitation cases since joining the FBI in August 2016, noted in her complaint that the visual depictions were transmitted across state lines using social media and cellphones — resulting in the enforcement of federal interstate commerce laws against Garofalo.

“[Garofalo] exploited more than 30 minors by blackmailing them into sending multiple sexually explicit photos and videos through social media threads,” said James Barnacle, Jr., assistant director in charge with the FBI’s New York Field Office.

“Garofalo, entrusted with the care and development of young teenagers, violated this trust when he victimized these children to fulfill his perverted wants.”

_{Top: Google Maps Street View — Valley Stream Central High School in Valley Stream and U.S. District Court in Central Islip.}