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Steven Brooks, 37, must serve at least 85% of the negotiated sentence handed down in federal court in Newark on Thursday, April 18, for posing as a woman to lure at least 70 underage boys into sending him nude photos and videos.
That means he'll be in his early 50s before he'll be eligible to experience freedom again.
FBI agents who investigated Brooks reported finding images of child sexual abuse divided into folders with labels such as “Bathing Suits,” “Nude,” “Partying” and “Skin Pictures,” which they said were used to “fully develop” the fake online persona.
Investigators found no proof that Brooks had ever physically touched or met any of his victims in person.
However, the FBI said he got dozens of boys to send him videos that included masturbation with their faces and penises both clearly visible.
One of the videos that Brooks received from an underage victim “depicted the minor masturbating,” an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
Another boy sent more than three dozen images, including selfies from in front of a bathroom mirror, the complaint says. A separate video shows two minors having intercourse on a bed for more than a half-hour, it says.
Brooks got caught after sending a hard drive to a California company to recover what he listed as “sensitive and private” information.
An employee there noticed several offensive and illegal thumbnail images, then immediately stopped the job and contacted the FBI.
Brooks -- who’d taught fifth grade at Washington Elementary School in Summit and helped run the Livingston Soccer Club for nearly a decade -- had been featured in a 2022 remote-learning episode created by NJTV in partnership with the NJEA and the state education department.
NJTV removed the "Learning Live" series episode both online and on-air after the allegations against Brooks were made public, said Debra Falk, the network's communications director.
Brooks took a deal from the government rather than risk the potential consequences of a conviction at a trial.
Hoping for leniency, he pleaded guilty a little over a year ago to possession and production of child porn.
Following his eventual release, Brook will be under supervision for 10 years and must pay the government $237,000 in restitution as part of the sentence meted out Thursday by U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Levin secured the plea and sentence following an investigation by members of the Newark FBI Field Office’s Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force, as well as special agents from the FBI’s San Francisco office, Sellinger said.
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