Andrew Gallo drugged and raped women he met on ‘Sugar Daddy,’ Tinder and other dating websites, prosecutors say

Another six women have accused a Levittown man they met on dating websites of drugging them methamphetamine and other intoxicants and raping them during dates at his home, prosecutors said Monday.

Andrew Gallo, 40, is now accused of assaulting 12 women he met on Tinder, Hinge and SugarDaddyMeet, a niche site that advertises itself as a way to connect “successful” older men with younger women. Gallo was initially accused of raping or sexually assaulting six women who set up dates with him online, but prosecutors say more victims came forward.

“His argument seems to be, ‘They would probably have sex with me anyway,’” Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy said Monday. ‘The problem is that he didn’t wait for that: he gave them all drugs, intoxicants that made them sick, so he could do whatever he wanted to them. It was clearly illegal.”

Gallo waived his preliminary hearing Monday on charges including rape, strangulation and drug possession, sending the case to a district judge. He remained in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail.

McElroy said her office was prepared for and expected a lengthy hearing Monday with testimony from all 12 victims, whom she described as “courageous women, prepared and willing to testify.”

Gallo’s attorney, Keith Williams, said after the brief court appearance that his client does not dispute having sex with the women, but said the encounters were consensual.

Gallo’s victims were between the ages of 17 and 35, and most were attacked over the course of about a year, culminating in June 2023, prosecutors said.

The incidents followed a similar pattern, prosecutors said: Gallo forced the women to drink alcohol, pouring them from already opened bottles laced with methamphetamine or MDMA, the drug commonly known as ecstasy, according to the affidavit. the probable cause of the assault. his arrest.

In some cases, he used the drugs to mimic salt and applied them to the rims of the glasses of cocktails he served the women. The women later said they either felt energetic and nervous or had lowered their inhibitions, conditions that prosecutors attributed to the drugs.

Gallo, they said, asked them to try on lingerie that he said belonged to an ex-girlfriend, then started having sex.

Some victims said they blacked out after a few sips of the drinks he provided, and when they woke up they found him performing sex acts on them, sometimes violently, the affidavit said. In some cases, the women said, he strangled them so forcefully during sex that some thought they were going to faint.

One woman told police that for safety reasons she had agreed to accompany a friend to meet Gallo at his home for a date, the affidavit said. Both women later said they were drugged and forced to have sex with him.

Some women said that when they started feeling sick, they asked Gallo if he had put drugs in their drinks, but he denied it, the affidavit said. Others went to a local emergency room after their encounters with Gallo and tested positive for formethamphetamine, or MDMA, the affidavit said.

When investigators served a warrant on Gallo’s home, authorities said, they discovered methamphetamine in an open bottle of liquor.