Mount Pleasant Police Chief arrested for child pornography possession

[hrmjustin]

Eyewitnesss News
MOUNT PLEASANT (WABC) -- A suburban New York police chief who taught sex-abuse awareness classes to children has been accused of downloading and sharing more than 120 images of child pornography.

Mount Pleasant Chief Brian Fanelli, 54, who has been in office about two months, was arrested Thursday by Homeland Security agents.

In a complaint filed with the court, an agent says Fanelli told investigators that he first viewed child pornography as sex-abuse research for the classes he was teaching at a grade school and a middle school. But he added that he then began viewing the images "for personal interest," the complaint said.

Fanelli was arrested at his home in Mahopac, and appeared before a federal magistrate judge in White Plains. He was released on a $50,000 bond that his wife agreed to co-sign. Judge Lisa Margaret Smith ordered home detention with electronic monitoring and barred him from Internet access and any association with children.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/northern_suburbs&id=9404742

[denverbill]

1. I don't understand why 'Homeland Security' agents arrested him.

What the hell is Homeland Security doing tracking down child porn viewers? Aren't they supposed to be restricted to going after terrorists?

I mean this guy was not creating child porn or trying to have sex with children. I don't any imminent danger to national security in what he did.

It's pretty bad that he was a cop teaching kids about sex-abuse awareness and then did this, but at the same time, it just really bothers me that Homeland Security is involved in this.

[hrmjustin]

2. I have no idea why they would have been sent.