Joseph Apostoli
Giuseppi Micciari
By Dan Murphy
First, let us acknowledge that we have noticed an effort by Westchester District Attorney Susan Cacace’s prosecutors to seek more lenient sentences on criminal cases that warrant it. The case of Greenburgh Firefighter Joseph Apostoli is one example.
Apostoli was charged by the DA in a domestic violence incident with his then-girlfriend in 2024. The DA recently announced that “a Greenburgh firefighter was sentenced Monday to three years of probation with domestic violence conditions for attacking his former girlfriend inside their shared apartment.
The DA’s Office had requested the additional imposition of shock probation, a small period of incarceration that forms part of the probationary sentence. Still, Judge James McCarty, who issued the sentence, denied this request.
At a bench trial in June, Judge McCarty convicted Joseph Apostoli, 46, a firefighter with the Fairview Fire Department, in Greenburgh, of two counts of Third-Degree Assault, a class A misdemeanor.
However, Judge McCarty acquitted Apostoli of Second-Degree Assault, a felony, and Second-Degree Unlawful Imprisonment and Criminal Obstruction of Breathing or Blood Circulation, both misdemeanors.
Apostoli will also be required to perform 100 hours of community service and provide approximately $1,600 in restitution to the victim for her medical expenses. A permanent order of protection was also issued on behalf of the victim.
DA Cacace said: “Domestic violence is a scourge that affects everyone, no matter their circumstance or lot in life. Working to eradicate domestic violence by prosecuting abusers and empowering survivors is and will remain the guiding principle for my administration.”
On April 11, 2024, during a domestic dispute inside their Dobbs Ferry apartment, Apostoli slammed the victim, his partner at the time, to the floor of their bedroom. He then carried her to the living room and threw her to the floor, again, and struck her about her head.
The victim — who is 4’10”, weighing barely 100 pounds against the defendant’s 6’2”, nearly 300-pound frame — sustained serious injuries following this attack, including a rib fracture, partially collapsed lung, and bruising to the body and face.
At sentencing, a statement authored by the victim was read aloud to the court, stating, “Although I work diligently to reclaim my life, the memories of that night constantly haunt me, triggered by the simplest reminders… I find myself questioning: ‘Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this suffering?’
“I wish for understanding, but the answer is, I may never know.”
In another Westchester case, this one in Federal Court, Giuseppi Micciari was sentenced to four years in prison for possession of child pornography. Micciari, 29, and a former coach and teacher’s aide in the Yorktown schools, was sentenced by US District Court Judge Philip Halpern on September 16.
Micciari was arrested in 2023 and charged after A Homeland Security agent, acting undercover on a site called Telegram, found buyers and sellers of videos of children under the age of 12. The trail eventually led to a PayPal account, a bank account, and a phone number belonging to Micciari.
On August 9, 2023, Micciari arrived at JFK Airport on a flight from Italy, where Customs agents seized his devices. After a Judge signed a warrant to look at the devices, 32 images and videos of underage children were found engaging in sexual conduct with an adult, and Micciari’s Telegram account was also found with messages back and forth to purchase the same content.
In those messages, Micciari attempted to buy the Snapchat password of a minor girl attending a Yorktown school, so that he could hack into her account. Micciari was never charged in that matter.
Micciari worked as a teaching assistant at Brookside Elementary School and then Yorktown High School from 2019 to 2023. Micciari was also set to coach Yorktown High School’s JV football team this year, but resigned in August.
He was charged with one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
While Micciari apologized to his victims and to the court, his bail was revoked in March of 2025 when investigators found photos of topless women on his devices. He has been in the Westchester County jail since his recent sentencing.
Micciari will also have to make restitution to some of the minor victims whose images were found on his devices in 2023. Some of the victims were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
