A teacher’s aide at a Brooklyn school was arrested again yesterday by the FBI and charged with making child pornography videos of students he was assaulting at the grade school where he worked, authorities said today.
It is the second time in the last two weeks that FBI agents have charged Taleek Brooks with offenses linked to illegally possessing films of underage children engaged in sexual acts.
After his first arrest in mid-January, Brooks allegedly confessed that he had assembled more than 1,000 pornographic images of young children on his computers, according to a report filed by Brooklyn federal prosecutors.
Brooks also informed the FBI that he was employed as a teacher’s aide at PS 243, known as The Weeksville School, in Crown Heights.
A video seized from his home shows him spanking one student and “inappropriately touching” another, the feds said.
A disquieting photograph posted on Brooks’ blog on the PS 243 Web site showed him dressed as the Easter Bunny and surrounded by young children.
City Education Department officials suspended Brooks without pay immediately after his initial arrest on January 13, officials said.
He has worked for the city Education department since 1995, and has been assigned to the Weeksville school since 2001, officials said.
The city schools chancellor went to the school this afternoon to be briefed on the situation, officials said.
Department of Education boss Dennis Walcott later said in a statement, “As Chancellor, and as a father, I am horrified and disgusted at the charges we learned of today from the FBI.
“Upon learning of this arrest, I immediately called the principal and went to the school to offer my support. Our paramount concern is for the safety of our students, and we are cooperating fully with the federal authorities as they continue their investigation.”
Brooks was also a staffer for the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, an after school program at PS 243. He was a Group Leader from April 2010 to January 2012 and was in charge of 14 children from kindergarten to fifth grade.
He was fired after his first arrest.
Christa McCarthy-Miller, a spokeswoman, said the school had recommended Brooks, who had undergone a background and fingerprint check.
When asked if there had been any complaints about Brooks, McCarthy-Miller said “not to my knowledge.”
“He was always nice,” said Kevin Johnson, 22, who had Brooks as a teacher through the afterschool program.
“I never thought that he would do something like this. He was like family. I trusted him. My mother trusted him.”
Johnson added that Brooks would come over to his house to watch basketball games.
Brooks was arraigned this afternoon in Brooklyn federal court with his defense attorney entering a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Assistant US Attorney Robert Polemeni told the judge that Brooks now faces carry a 15-year mandatory minimum prison sentence if he’s convicted.
Prosecutors explained in court that images showing Brooks molesting children were already in the teacher’s aide’s personal computer files when FBI agents arrested him last month.
Due to the large number of child porn files on the hard drive, it has taken investigators time to catalog and review each image or video, prosecutors said.
“The defendant is seen on the video fondling children,” Polemeni said of the newly-discovered film. “He’s a danger to society.”
“He was an active participant?” asked Magistrate Judge Joan Azrack.
“Yes, your honor,” the prosecutor replied.
Brooks’ defense attorney asked for his release on bail.
But the judge said that although Brooks has been under house arrest since the first charges were leveled against him last month, she did not “think that the community was protected under the circumstances” of new allegations arising that he molested children.
Azrack then denied the bail request and ordered that Brooks be held in a federal detention center to await trial.
After the hearing, Brooks’ relatives declined to comment on the allegations.