Cortlandt Sex Trafficker Used 17-Year-Old Friend: US Attorney

SOUTHEAST, NY — A Cortlandt woman who prosecutors allege used a Putnam County motel to pimp out a 17-year-old girl she had introduced to drugs and the sex trade in 2015 was arrested Tuesday for sex trafficking. Jennifer Coviello was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith in White Plains federal court.

Donald B. Smith, Putnam County Sheriff; Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; and William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made the announcement jointly.

The victim had been living in with Coviello off and on since 2015, in Montrose NY, according to the complaint unsealed yesterday. At other times the girl lived with her grandparents and a friend.

Coviello is accused of introducing the girl to heroin and cocaine. According to the complaint, Coviello also introduced her to the sex trade in 2015.

In March 2017, Coviello told the girl she needed to make money to pay for the drugs.

Then Coviello was arrested in May 2017 for petty larceny. An order of protection was issued to keep her from the girl. Coviello got out of prison Oct. 2, prosecutors said.

They allege Coviello posted posted online advertisements in December soliciting prostitution customers for herself and the 17-year-old. When she received inquiries in response to the ads, she emailed and sent by text message photographs of the girl, including nude and partially nude photographs.

For about a week, Coviello operated her commercial sex business out of a motel in Putnam County, where she arranged for customers to meet her and the girl to engage in commercial sex acts in exchange for cash, officials said. During that week, they allege, she provided the girl with illegal drugs, including heroin, and arranged for her to misrepresent to customers that she was over 18.

At the time of her arrest, Coviello’s reported residence address was 89 Newburgh Road in the Town of Patterson, New York.

According to criminal complaints filed in court, the offenses charged against Coviello allegedly occurred at the Bel Aire Motor Lodge in the Town of Southeast, according to the Putnam Sheriff's Office.

Coviello, 43, is charged with one count of sex trafficking of a minor, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison; and one count of use of interstate facilities to promote a prostitution enterprise, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress. Any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force with the assistance of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department. Kim praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department.

“My office is grateful to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI for their diligent work in helping to put an end to this deplorable case, stopping the victimization of a young woman and bringing the perpetrator to justice," Smith said in the announcement. "This case is yet another example of how effective law enforcement can be when local agencies, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office all work together to fight crime and to help keep Putnam County and the Hudson Valley safe.”

PHOTO: Jennifer Coviello/ Putnam Sheriff's Office