Former BOCES Aide From Selden Tampered With Evidence By Deleting Photo He Took Under Girl's Dress: DA

RIVERSIDE, NY — A former BOCES aide from Selden was indicted for unlawful surveillance, and other related charges, including tampering for deleting an image from his cellphone that was from under a 13-year-old girl's dress while she shopped for greeting cards in Target, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said Thursday.

Aqeel Ahmad, a 53-year-old Pakistani national, also faces a charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

Ahmad was ordered on supervised release without bail because his charge is considered non-bail eligible under current state law, meaning prosecutors cannot ask for, and judges cannot set, bail.

If convicted on the top count, he faces one and one-third year to four years in prison if convicted on the top count.

Patch has reached out to his defense attorney, David Kirsch of Huntington Station, for comment.

Tierney said that the indictment reflects his office's "unwavering commitment to protecting the most vulnerable among us."

“This defendant’s alleged conduct is both predatory and deeply disturbing," he said. We will confront such acts that violate a child’s safety and dignity with every appropriate legal measure.”

After arresting Ahmad, police determined that he had deleted the image of the victim’s intimate area from his phone, prosecutors said.

On Oct. 19, while inside Target in Selden, a girl was in the card aisle with her father, and he noticed that a man, later identified as Ahmad, was crouched down next to his daughter, holding his phone next to her bare leg, near the hemline of her dress, prosecutors said.

The father immediately confronted Ahmad, but he fled, and later that day, the father saw Ahmad sitting in his car in the Target parking lot and confronted him a second time, taking photographs of the vehicle and license plate before contacting the police, according to prosecutors.

A BOCES spokesman previously told Patch that Ahmad was a special education aide at the Brookhaven Learning Center in Bellport, which is part of Eastern Suffolk BOCES, until he resigned from his post, but declined further comment.

In a statement, which was released after Ahmad's initial arrest, David Wicks, the institution's Chief Operating Officer, said officials were aware of the allegations.

"We condemn the abhorrent crimes of which he is accused," he said. "Mr. Ahmad was not on campus today, has been placed on leave, is prohibited from all BOCES property, and has had no contact with students since his arrest."