Cops Say N.J. Child Porn Customers Included Doctor, Teacher, Minister

ABC NEWS ^ | January 15, 2004 | Jen Maxfield

[Coleus]

Child Porn Customers Included Doctor, Teacher, Minister >>>

See they were married, some protestant and not celibate papist priests. Perversions affect all people of all faiths regardless of creed or marriage status.

Pastor (Protestant) convicted of soliciting sex from teenager

 

30 Jerseyans to face Internet child-porn charges

Federal authorities say arrests include pediatrician and teacher
Thursday, January 15, 2004

 

BY MATTHEW J. DOWLING AND ROBERT RUDOLPH
Star-Ledger Staff

 

Federal authorities plan to announce today the arrests of about 30 New Jersey residents -- including a pediatrician, teacher and minister -- on charges that they downloaded nude photos of children from the Internet, law enforcement sources said.

 

The months-long, nationwide investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has targeted dozens of other alleged pedophiles across the country, sources said. Federal officials have called a news conference in Newark today to detail the arrests and how investigators tracked down those seeking child pornography on the Web.

 

Among those already charged is Ronald M. Hiles, 44, of High Bridge. Hiles, a substitute teacher at the High Bridge elementary and middle schools in Hunterdon County, was arrested Tuesday morning after agents from ICE raided his home and seized two computer hard drives that contained 15 images of nude boys, authorities said.

 

Earlier this month, Lee Matthews, a minister and drama teacher at Mount Saint Mary Academy in Watchung, was arrested on similar charges. Matthews, 48, of Plainfield, is accused of downloading more than 100 pornographic pictures of boys and girls on his home computer. After his arrest, Matthews was relieved of his duties at the all-girl college prep school.

 

Agents from ICE, which is part of the federal Department of Homeland Security, have been executing search warrants throughout New Jersey this week. The investigation is an offshoot of "Operation Predator," an international investigation into child pornography and child prostitution that has resulted in 1,600 arrests since July.

 

Hiles, who is married and the father of three, posted a $100,000 bond yesterday after his first appearance in U.S. District Court before Judge Madeline Cox Arleo. He was banned from having access to computers or the Internet and ordered not to have unsupervised contact with children, other than his own, in nonpublic places.

 

"I'm sorry, at the advice of counsel, I have no comment for you," Hiles said when he answered the door at his Michael Lane home last night.

 

Hiles told authorities after his arrest that he used the Internet to view images of nude boys between the ages of 8 and 18, and subscribed to Web sites that provided child pornography, according to court documents.

 

If convicted, Hiles could face up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $250,000. High Bridge school Superintendent Patricia Ash said that Hiles, who worked in the district for about 2 1/2 years, was removed from the substitute teacher list yesterday. "We are very upset with what has happened," Ash said from her home last night. Ash, who has been in touch with the U.S. Attorney's Office and Customs agents, said she was told that there is no connection between the charges and Hiles' work in the High Bridge schools.

 

"We are a small community and a very caring community. This is just one of those things we are going to have to deal with," Ash said.

 

In addition to working as a teacher in High Bridge, Hiles also has volunteered with youth programs at Presbyterian churches in Clinton and Califon.

 

The Rev. Tim Harrison, co-pastor of the Clinton Presbyterian Church where Hiles has volunteered for the last two years, said church leaders met last night to discuss the arrest.

 

Harrison said he does not have reason to believe Hiles had any inappropriate contact with children participating in the youth programs, which always have multiple adults supervising children.

 

He described Hiles as friendly and said he was surprised to learn of the charges against him.

"This is just very sad," Harrison said.

 

Staff writer Peter N. Spencer contributed to this report
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1074149551322861.xml

[ancient_geezer]

But not for those producing the porn

The one's being targeted are those accused of having CC numbers associated with purchases(through "money laundering" laws) and sellers of porn. Apparently no one "producing" the porn is in the net. At least there doesn't appear to be anyone charged with such.

"Twenty-four New Jersey residents are charged with downloading child pornography from the Internet. Many were busted when Visa and MasterCard agreed to turn over their customer's transaction records to the U.S. Attorney."

We'll see how this plays out.

Looks to me the ultimate culprits and offenders, (i.e the producers) have dropped out of the net.

[little jeremiah]

Christopher Christie: "If you are a member of one of these sites, if you buy this material and you download it, you are committing a federal crime. We will catch you, and we will put you in jail."

Instead of putting in jail, how about public beatings? Please? Public pain and public shame would be much more effective. What to speak of cheaper.

[little jeremiah]

What on earth is that post for??? Do we really need this lesson?

[Palladin]

Hmmm...I read in one article that most of the porn related to this investigation is produced in Belarus, and that the Belarus police are cooperating in this joint venture because the kids being abused are "their own".

It's in the Wash Post article.

[Palladin]

Are you sober tonight?

[ancient_geezer]

Then hopefully one particular ring will truely be shut down.

Like drugs, not getting at the producers by concentrating on the user & local traffic to the exclusion of gaining access to the producer as well, assures that more will be comeing down the pike and more children exploited and abused.

[185JHP]

Bring in some of those guys from Singapore with their rattan canes?

[Old Professer]

How many women were arrested?

[little jeremiah]

Absolutely. A few weeks ago I was conversing with the head DA in this county and he agreed that the spectre of jail time does little to deter much crime. I suggested public beatings and he told me in all seriousness that unless public beatings return as a method of punishment, prisons will continue to have revolving doors. He didn't seem to hold much hope that it will happen though.

I say the sooner the better.

And it would be cheaper.

[185JHP]

The first lick with the cane hurts so much, they pass out from the pain. Another benefit is the scar. People will know "you fought the law, but what I see on your rump tells me you didn't win."

[Palladin]

A bump for this thread.

Why don't they put these guys' names in big high letters on every billboard in New Jersey?

Parents and grandparents have a right to know who these creeps are.

[Coleus]

The Newark Star Ledger did that today in it's print version of the newspaper: name, age, occupation and city. There is no link to the chart.

http://www.nj.com/starledger/
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1074236127160341.xml


Arrests cap probe of kid porn ring

15 from N.J. seized in global hunt of online sellers and customers
Friday, January 16, 2004
BY JOHN P. MARTIN Star-Ledger Staff

Fifteen New Jersey men were charged yesterday with possessing child pornography, ending a yearlong worldwide investigation that targeted not just the online consumers, but the men and companies who reaped millions selling and distributing photos of naked children.

The subscribers represented a broad swath of life, including a 70-year-old minister, a 22-year-old elementary school band teacher, a retired engineer, a banker and three men convicted of sex offenses, authorities said.

The arrests were part of an investigation that also netted three Belarussian Web site operators who prosecutors said collected millions of dollars in online fees for child pornography and the CEO of a Florida credit card company that processed their transactions.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said the investigation was the first of its kind to target international profiteers of child pornography by tracking the payments from subscribers.

"The message here today for people who decide to buy child pornography on the Internet is that you're not nearly as anonymous as you think you are," Christie said during a news conference in Newark. "And we are going to find you and we are going to prosecute you."

The defendants appeared in handcuffs yesterday at federal courthouses in Newark and Camden after surrendering or being arrested by agents from the bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Most face up to 10 years in prison for possessing child pornography.

Nine others from New Jersey were charged or arrested in recent months.

Also awaiting extradition are three men from Minsk, Belarus, who prosecutors say ran Regpay, the company that collected fees for dozens of child pornography Web sites. Yahor Zalatarou, Aliaksandr Boika and Alexei Buchnev were arrested last summer in Europe and face mandatory minimum prison terms of 15 years for conspiring to distribute, sell or advertise child pornography.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the arrests showed that purveyors of child pornography will be pursued across the globe. "Hiding their operations in a foreign country will not shield abusers from justice," he said in a statement.

The announcements yesterday capped a yearlong investigation by agents from the Internal Revenue Service, FBI, ICE and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The investigation included cooperation from law enforcement in London, Belarus and Europe, officials said.

Investigators logged onto dozens of Web sites, pored through mountains of credit card data, raided the offices of one company and used e-mails from an undercover agent to lure the Belarussians to their arrests. And all of that grew from a somewhat simple beginning: Typing the word "Lolita" into an Internet search engine.

That's what agents did last February. Back flowed the hits. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Ortiz, the prosecutor on the case, said the office had prosecuted many people for possessing child pornography over the years but rarely pursued the profiteers.

"I saw enough of these (cases)," he said. "I said let's put our money where our mouth is."

Over several months, investigators bought memberships to roughly a dozen sites, then used bank and credit card records to trace the transactions, according to a complaint filed by IRS special agent Maria Reverendo.

The trail first led them to Connections USA, a Fort Lauderdale company that processed the transactions, then to banks in Eastern Europe and ultimately the Belarussians. Investigators said the Regpay operators personally owned three child pornography sites and directed traffic and accepted payments for as many as 50 others.

Last summer, an agent assumed the e-mail address of a Connections executive and proposed a meeting with Zalatarou, the 25-year-old president of Regpay, to discuss some billing problems, the complaint says.

Zalatarou and Aliaksandr Boika, 29, arrived at the meeting in Paris in July and were arrested. The company's marketing director, Alexei Buchnev, 26, was picked up while vacationing in Spain, Ortiz said. A fourth defendant, Tatsiana Sienko, 25, is being sought.

Authorities said they had seized $800,000 from Connections USA that they believe were proceeds for child pornography subscriptions. The company's CEO, Eugene Valentine, 38, pleaded guilty this week to conspiring to launder money and agreed to cooperate with investigators.

The arrests of New Jersey subscribers were timed and prioritized depending on whether the defendants had access to children.

For instance, Edward R. Enginer of West Orange, a media technician at West Orange High School, was arrested after agents identified him as a subscriber on Oct. 14. And prosecutors charged Edelfonso Mendez, 39, a family practitioner in Passaic, in September.

"You know he has access to children," Ortiz said. "That was one we couldn't wait."

In many cases, agents found evidence on the defendants' computers. For instance, a photo found on the computer of Lee Matthews of Plainfield showed a naked young girl crying and wearing a dog collar, according to the complaint against him. Matthews, 48, a former campus minister at Mount St. Mary Academy in Watchung, was arrested last week.

The group charged yesterday included John Lapetina, 22, of Pittsgrove, Salem County, an elementary school band teacher with the Wenonah Elementary School in Woodbury Heights; Clarence Alfred Stewart, 85, of Randolph, a retired design engineer, and Edward Napier, 70, a retired Presbyterian pastor from Mount Laurel who surrendered in Camden.

"What this tells us is that the consumers of child pornography cover every sector of our society, unfortunately," Christie said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark ordered most of them released on $100,000 bonds secured with property or cash and restricted their access to the Internet or young children. Some left without commenting or, like Sam Cynamon of Millburn, let their lawyers speak for them.

"He plans to vigorously contest these charges," Cynamon's attorney, Sharon Bittner Kean, said.

Florian Frank came to the federal courthouse in Newark to pick up one of the defendants, Gerhart Weber, 64, of Manhasset, N.Y. The men work together at a Hackensack coin and stamp album company.

"I was shocked and I don't believe it," Frank said. "He is an excellent employee."

[185JHP]

Affirmative. All conviction infrmation should be available. Criminal coddling endangers the innocent, who underpin the society.

[Palladin]

Thanks for the update.

[Palladin]

A weekend bump.