Smithtown Probation Officer Sentenced After Sexual Relationship With Probationer: DA

MINEOLA, NY. — A Smithtown resident was sentenced to six months in jail with five months probation Wednesday after he filed false case notes related to a woman whose probation he was supervising with whom he had also engaged in a sexual relationship, prosecutors said.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Tuesday that 44-year-old Matthew Albertson had pleaded guilty to a first-degree charge of offering a false instrument for filing, a class-E felony, and a charge of official misconduct in September.

According to Donnelly’s office, an attorney for the probationer had reported Donnelly’s relationship with her to the county in August of 2023, providing screenshots of text messages between the two and claiming that the relationship had spanned from November 2021 to March 2022. After investigating the allegations, prosecutors said they found that Albertson had falsified case notes regarding the woman’s drug tests, office visits and home visits on at least nine separate occasions between January of 2022 and August of 2023, recording tests and visits that never occurred.

Further evidence discovered upon investigation revealed that Albertson and the woman whose probation he was supervising had engaged in a sexual relationship between December of 2021 and March of 2022, including during a home visit, prosecutors said. That relationship, prosecutors said, violated written probation rules prohibiting intimate relationships between probationers and their probation officers.

“Matthew Albertson engaged in a relationship with a warped power dynamic, holding his probationer’s future in his hands and ignoring all of the policies and procedures meant to protect probationers, officers, and the entire system,” Donnelly said Wednesday. “His betrayal of his sworn duty harmed the progress of the probationer he was assigned to monitor and support, and unfairly damages the reputation of probation officers who bring professionalism and dedication to their positions every day in Nassau County.”

Prosecutors said Wednesday that Albertson had also entered an agreement with a family member of the probationer in January of 2024 to purchase a car for her, which also violated probationary rules. Additionally, prosecutors said Albertson gave the woman roughly $8,000 across at least 18 separate occasions between Dec. 22, 2021 and Feb. 13, 2022. That money went toward a car rental, food, manicures and other expenses, prosecutors said.

Finally, on Feb. 12, 2022, the woman told Albertson over text that she feared she was suffering from a fentanyl overdose, prosecutors said. On this occasion, prosecutors said Albertson did not seek medical or emergency assistance for the probationer, but told her instead to stay awake, wake up her mother and eat sugar, prosecutors said. In the aftermath of this incident, Albertson didn’t report any drug use in his case notes, prosecutors said.

When reached for comment, Albertson’s attorney, Lloyd Nadel, called the events a “sad situation all around.”

“Mr. Albertson was a probation officer with an impeccable record. He's married, [with] two young children. He made the mistake of getting involved with somebody he shouldn't have, and as you probably know, he was arrested and charged with a number of counts of inappropriate behavior for a public officer. We did enter a plea bargain in September where he pled guilty to two of the counts, and today he was sentenced to six months in jail, five years probation,” Nadel said. “The district attorney was asking for one to three years in prison. Obviously, I thought that was very severe, and, I believe, so did the judge. I was trying to get a much lower sentence, and the judge decided six months in jail, five years probation would be appropriate. This is Mr. Albertson's only brush with the law. As I said, he was an outstanding probation officer for 15 years, never a complaint mentioned about his personal background. So it's just a sad situation all around.”