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A federal judge in Newark ordered 51-year-old Richard Genao held without bail this morning.
Genao, who is charged with sexual exploitation of a child, befriended the boy in 1995 while living in Bayonne with his partner, Edgar Rodriguez, federal authorities said.
“On several occasions before, during, and after the summer of 2010, Genao and Rodriguez videotaped and photographed themselves engaging in oral and anal sex with the victim,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a release.
“In one video, Genao films the victim while the child is taking a shower. Genao comments that the camera is fogging up, then flips around the camera to wipe off the lens and records his own face,” the U.S. Attorney said.
After becoming friendly with the boy’s mother, Genao and Rodriguez invited the neighborhood teen to spend the weekend at their apartment, an FBI complaint says.
That’s when the abuse began, it says.
The men used a Canon PowerShot A520 digital camera that recorded a variety of vile acts, as described in the complaint, on file in U.S. District Court.
(CLIFFVIEW PILOT is withholding details outlined in the complaint.)
Last fall, Genao and Rodriguez moved to Buffalo. They brought with them the camera and two memory cards with the digital abuse images, the FBI says.
Rodriguez died this past Aug. 31, and Genao lived briefly with a member of Rodriguez’s family in Buffalo before moving back to New Jersey, according to the complaint.
Soon after, the family member discovered the camera and cards, which Genao had left behind. He called local police, who, in turn, summoned the FBI.
Agents interviewed the boy last Thursday and then arrested Genao.
Fishman credited special agents of the FBI and thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York for its assistance.
Handling the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew J. Bruck of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark.
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