An elementary-school substitute teacher, a children’s shoe store worker and two dozen others were part of a perverse underground that swapped graphic photos and videos of children being sexually abused, prosecutors said Tuesday.
“The defendants in these cases traded images of child sexual assault the way that others trade baseball cards,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said as he announced the 26 arrests Tuesday.
The men collected and traded “truly sickening” images of boys and girls, some apparently as young as a year old, being forced into sex acts, Vance said. Some defendants did more than look, he said.
The substitute teacher, Joshua Ruiz, had explicit photos and videos and chatted online with other people about engaging children in sexual activities, telling one he had had sexual contact with a relative under 15, prosecutors told a judge. When another online correspondent discussed the idea of a sexual encounter with a small girl, Ruiz said he “would love to be a part of it if you let me, at least just to watch,” prosecutors said.
Ruiz, 32, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to promoting and possessing a sexual performance by a child. His lawyer didn’t immediately return a call afterward.
The city Department of Education said Ruiz had no criminal record when hired in September 2008. After filling in at a number of schools, most recently in Manhattan, he was removed from teaching after his arrest last month, the department said.
Ruiz also works as a piano teacher, prosecutors said. He is free on $15,000 bail.
Another defendant, an unemployed architect, chatted and exchanged explicit images online with a 16-year-old boy in Canada, ultimately getting the boy to perform a sex act while he watched via webcam, prosecutors said. They said they and Canadian authorities had found the boy and notified his family.
The 38-year-old architect’s arraignment information and his lawyer’s name were immediately available.
Another defendant, a corporate lawyer, had about 5,000 images of child sexual assault in his home computers, prosecutors said. A dishwasher at a child friendly restaurant kept his collection sorted by the children’s ages, with some folders for children as young as 1, they said.
The men range in age from 18 to 63; some have children of their own, prosecutors said. The group includes a banker, a bartender, an accountant, a security guard and more.
The charges against the defendants vary, but they generally face charges of promoting or possessing a child sexual performance, which can carry up to seven years in prison.
Under the relevant New York laws, “sexual performance” refers to any visual representation that includes sexual conduct — actual or simulated — by a child under 17. “Promote” doesn’t necessarily mean to publicize or advertise; it can also mean to circulate, provide or acquire.