Thomas Traficante, who stalked SUNY Geneseo ex-girlfriend, sentenced to four years

Gary Craig | Democrat and Chronicle

(This story has been updated to correct the name of a sorority, which was wrongly identified in an earlier version.)

Had Thomas Traficante simply continued going to school — instead of stalking his former girlfriend, posting her contact information on a prostitution website, and trying to plant drugs in her college mailbox and get her arrested — he likely would be graduating this week with a master's degree in accounting.

Instead, Traficante, 23, was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison by U.S. District Judge David Larimer, who likened Traficante's harassment spree to psychological terrorism.

"If you had a modicum of intelligence, you should know that what you did, repeatedly, was despicable," Larimer said.

Larimer found Traficante's actions so troubling that the judge handed out a tougher sentence than that recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, which are not binding on a judge. The guidelines recommended a sentence of 30 to 37 months.

His attorney, Raymond Perini, had asked that Traficante be sentenced to probation. Perini said after the sentencing that he plans to appeal Larimer's sentence.

A psychiatrist who interviewed Traficante determined that, with treatment and medication, Traficante was very unlikely to engage in more crime, Perini said. Traficante was in a master's degree program for accounting when he was arrested in December.

In the final months of 2017, Traficante targeted his former girlfriend and her sorority sisters at the State University College at Geneseo in a harassment campaign that sometimes resembled a horror movie.

He anonymously texted friends of the victim that "my goal is to create the most amount of turmoil and pain within greek life" and that the outcome "of my actions could be death." He also texted his ex-girlfriend and her friends in early December, saying that "youre all crazy if you think im not still out there."

That same day the friends, who were members of Sigma Kappa, received a text message stating "I'm in the house." Local police searched the sorority house and found nothing unusual.

"These women were terrorized," Larimer said Wednesday. "Their parents were terrorized."

Traficante and his ex-girlfriend's family both lived in the Long Island area. He also shot a window of their home and a car with a BB gun.

When arrested in December, Traficante had a legally owned semi-automatic AR-15 at his home that he said he used for target shooting. Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Marangola said at sentencing that Traficante's acts had escalated over the months, and there were legitimate concerns about how he might have used the firearm.

Traficante shook his head negatively, apparently indicating he would not have resorted to such violence, But Larimer also picked up the thought, stating, "Had you not been caught, would you have graduated from shooting up a house and a car with a BB gun to something more serious?"

Traficante's victim was in the courtroom Wednesday. Marangola said the young woman has been so traumatized that she has considered changing her name and thinks about constantly changing her phone number.

In March, Traficante pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and distribution of a controlled substance. He admitted that between October and December 2017 his actions included:

• Sending cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana to his girlfriend's university address and alerting authorities in an attempt to have her expelled or arrested.

• Posting her contact information on a prostitution website, leading to about 60 contacts "from random numbers all wanting to have sex with her."

• Changing the email address for the victim's log-in to her chemistry class, then submitting quizzes "as completed before she had taken them." The quizzes ended up with scores of zero.

Larimer noted that Traficante also allegedly harassed an earlier girlfriend in a similar way. He was never charged in those incidents.

In court, Traficante apologized to his victims, their families and his own family. His father is a retired New York City detective.

In letters to Larimer, Traficante's family asked for leniency but acknowledged that they were stunned by his crimes.

"I'm sure someday my son will win back my trust," his father wrote.

GCRAIG@Gannett.com