A federal magistrate judge in Newark ordered Anselmo Girimonte, 51, of Wharton detained following his arrest by members of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations on Friday, March 4, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Girimonte, previously of Madison and Bloomfield, has taught Italian in grades 3 through 8 in the Kearny School District since 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Sellinger said Girimonte "distributed material containing images and video files of child sexual abuse, via a publicly available online peer-to-peer file-sharing network of linked computers."
Federal investigators pulled several video files that the U.S. attorney said contained "multiple visual depictions of prepubescent children being sexually abused by adults."
They charged Girimonte with distributing child pornography.
Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security HSI's New Jersey Division with the investigation leading to the arrest.
He also thanked the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, the Rockaway Township Police Department and the United States Postal Inspection Service for their assistance with the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Camila A. Garces of his Violent Crimes Unit in Newark is handling the case, Sellinger said.
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