A former aide to the Westchester Board of Legislators who was caught by a vigilante group trying to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex has been sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Anand Singh, 36, who was in custody since pleading guilty in February, was sentenced June 30 by U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti in White Plains federal court to the prison term and five years of post-release supervision with sex-offender conditions and ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution.
On December 16, 2022, while working for the county board, Singh drove to New Jersey to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl to have sex. But when he arrived, he was confronted by members of the vigilante group OBL Global, which targets adults seeking to have sex with minors.
Singh fled the scene but the group’s video showing Singh’s communications and arrival in person eventually got him fired and then arrested in May 2023 after the FBI took up the case.
Singh had met someone posing as a 20-year-old woman in a dating app several days earlier. As they communicated, the “girl” in the sting let him know she was actually 14 years old which initially Singh said was too young. But he persisted in sending lewd texts with her about sexual activity he wanted to engage in with her. They arranged the meeting for when her mother wouldn’t be home and he said he didn’t intend on using a condom and was going to bring along Plan B contraceptive.
Singh was a staff assistant to the county board’s committees from January 2021 until he was fired in April 2023 after video of the vigilante group’s sting was posted online. Individual legislators – including then-chairwoman Catherine Borgia – were made aware of the allegations four months earlier after the video was taken. But he was kept on staff after county police could not confirm the claims and no video had surfaced.
Borgia ended up stepping down as chairwoman under pressure from her colleagues but kept her seat. When she could not run again in 2024 due to term limits, then County Executive George Latimer appointed her to a new position in his office, advisor on women and families. This year, County Executive Ken Jenkins named her acting director of the county’s Office for Women.
Singh pleaded guilty in February to traveling interstate to engage in sex with a minor and possession of child pornography. The latter charge involved images of a naked 17-year-old Singh had kept after having sex with her in the fall of 2022. They had met on a dating app where the girl claimed she was 18.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Wheelock urged Briccetti to impose a guideline sentence of between 4 1/4 and 5 1/4 years.
“The defendant engaged in a pattern of seeking out young girls, as reflected in the excitement he expressed to the purported minor when he learned that she was only fourteen years old,” Wheelock wrote last month in a sentencing memo. “This kind of conduct—seeking out young children for sex—threatens an especially vulnerable segment of our society.”
The judge was required to consider the guidelines but was not bound by them.
While probation recommended a 2-year prison term defense lawyer Kevin Conway argued that a non-custodial sentence with supervision and treatment would be sufficient. He detailed how Singh turned to dating apps in the fall of 2022 following a bad breakup and was remorseful for his conduct, which was the first time he had veered into criminal activity.
“Mr. Singh’s recent entanglement with the criminal justice system has altered his attitude, made him appreciate how his behavior impacted the victims and has made him open to and desirous of continuing to obtain therapeutic treatment,” Conway wrote in his sentencing memo.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Ex Westchester legislative aide sentenced for trying to have sex with minor
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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By Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
