35°
Several of those scooped up live in pricier North Jersey communities, including a development along the Hudson in Edgewater & tony Old Tappan, as well as grimier towns like Bergenfield. They range in age from 18 to 63. One even lives on a street called Snake Den Road.
The group includes Joseph Ponsi of River Vale, a former guidance counselor with the Palisades Park school district, and Anthony Engstrom, who’d recently been hired as a police dispatcher in Maywood.
Investigators arrested Engstrom, 20, last week on statutory rape charges for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Detectives discovered he’d been transmitting child porn on his home computer, said Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.
Molinelli and Attorney General Anne Milgram said the two-month, multi-county probe foiund 21 people using the Internet to acquire and/or distribute child pornography.
“In each case, the child pornography involved prepubescent children engaged in sexual acts,” Molinelli said. “In several of the cases, the child pornography depicted children as young as 2 years old engaged in sexual acts.”
Investigators obtained search warrants, then examined computers, on which Molinelli said they found even more kiddie porn.
Molinelli’s highly regarded Computer Crimes Task Force began the probe, which soon stretched across the Northeast part of New Jersey.
Five of those taken into custody are juveniles; the rest are adults:
1. Max Weinstein – DOB: 5/25/1990 – 1 Mariners Cove, Edgewater, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
2. Joseph Ponsi – DOB: 10/30/1945 – 305 Rivervale Road, River Vale, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
3. Anthony Luciano – DOB: 04/11/1986 – 16 6th St., Park Ridge, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
4. Ronnie Franklin – DOB: 10/03/1977 – 231 Passaic St., Hackensack, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
5. Anthony Engstrom – DOB: 07/28/1988 – 891 Spring Valley Road, Maywood, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography and Sexual Assault, 2nd Degree
6. William Demarzo – DOB: 07/19/1960 – 19 Orangeburg Road, Old Tappan, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
7. Ramon Cruz – DOB: 10/27/1972 – 141 N. Prospect Avenue, Bergenfield, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
8. Daniel Borjas – DOB: 12/06/1977 – 395 Ridge Road, Apt. O, North Arlington, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
9. Christopher Bohan – DOB: 03/16/1980 – 374 Spring Valley Road, Paramus, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
10. Daniel Berardo – DOB: 05/25/1990 – 15 Mountainview Road, Cresskill, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
11. Marc Serkin – DOB: 07/29/1963 – 6 Carol Court, Cranford, NJ – Possession of Child Pornography
12. Gilbert Seidel – DOB: 06/24/1963 – 328 Central Avenue, Hawthorne, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
13. Joseph J. Robibero – DOB: 08/05/1978 – 11 Pond Eddy Road, Vernon, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
14. John Prevete – DOB: 09/14/1964 – 193 Snake Den Road, Bloomingdale, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
15. Wilman Rangel Mejia – DOB: 08/03/1964 – 212 Michigan Avenue, Paterson, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
16. Louis Beyer – DOB: 11/01/1969 – 10-A Arch Street, Butler, NJ – Transmission and Possession of Child Pornography
Cited in their work on the case:
New Jersey State Police – New Jersey ICAC Task Force, under the direction of Colonel Rick Fuentes;
Passaic County Sherriff’s Department, under the direction of Sheriff Jerry Speziale;
Union County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow and Chief Robert Buccino;
Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Robert Bianchi and Chief William Schievella;
Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor David J. Weaver and Chief Charles Catalano.
Molinelli and Milgram emphasized that child pornography is not a victimless crime and that the task force they’ve built will “aggressively pursue” anyone who victimizes children online.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
