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Richard Wolffe Jr., age 39, of Bay Shore, was indicted on multiple counts of possession of a sexual performance by a child in Suffolk County Court on Thursday, Nov. 14.
Prosecutors said a tipster contacted Suffolk County Police in August 2022 alleging that Wolffee had uploaded child pornography to a cloud storage website. Nearly a year went by before officers executed a search warrant at his Bay Shore home in July 2023.
During their search police discovered multiple electronic devices, including an external hard drive, that contained over 5,000 images and videos depicting child sex abuse, prosecutors said. The victims were all under the age of 10 with some as young as infants.
Wolffe was arrested in August 2023. In court Friday, he was arraigned on 20 counts of possession of a sexual performance by a child, all felonies.
Under state law, the charges are not bail eligible, meaning prosecutors cannot ask for, and judges cannot set, bail. Acting Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis ordered that Wolffe be placed on supervised release.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney blasted state lawmakers following Wolffe’s release.
“The fact that prosecutors cannot even ask for bail for consumers of child sexual abuse images and videos is wrong and our lawmakers need to wake up,” Tierney said.
“Each image in cases like these represents a crime scene and a child whose innocence was violently stolen. Our office will vigorously prosecute anyone who not only exploits our most vulnerable, but those who fuel and feed off of such heinous acts.”
If convicted, Wolffe faces up to four years in prison.
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