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Rabbi Charged in Major Child Pornography Bust

At least 70 others, including a police officer, nabbed in federal investigation

by
Stephanie Butnick
May 21, 2014
(Shutterstock)
(Shutterstock)

A major federal child pornography investigation led to the arrests of at least 70 people in the New York City area, the AP reports. One of the people charged with possessing and sharing child pornography, disturbingly, was a rabbi. He reportedly home-schooled his own and other children.

The five-week probe, which is being called “one of the largest local roundups ever of individual consumers of child porn,” nabbed some other seemingly upstanding citizens—a police officer, paramedic, nurse, and a Boy Scout leader were also charged.

Agents are still examining the devices to locate and catalog evidence — an arduous task that could result in more arrests. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also will use its analysts to review the images to see if it can identify children using databases of known victims.



“We refer to each of these images as a crime scene photo because that’s exactly what they are,” said John Ryan, the organization’s chief executive officer.

According to Daily Intel, 600 computers, smartphones, and tablet devices were seized in the investigation.

UPDATE: The rabbi charged was Samuel Waldman, who was arrested in March on child pornography charges.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.