Brooklyn Man Charged with Production of Child Pornography

Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, today announced that Taleek Brooks was arrested last night for production of child pornography.¹ The defendant is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack, at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. This is the second time in the past month that the defendant, a teacher’s aide at PS 243, The Weeksville School, in Brooklyn, New York, and an after-school volunteer at the school with the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, has been arrested on child pornography charges.

According to the government’s complaint, on December 29, 2011, FBI special agents downloaded several videos and images depicting child pornography from shared directories that the defendant maintained on a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing program. On January 13, 2012, FBI special agents executed a search warrant of the defendant’s residence in Brooklyn. During the search, agents seized, among other items, a computer and two external hard drives from the defendant’s bedroom. The defendant admitted to agents that he has been using a P2P file sharing program to download and share child pornography for approximately seven years, and that he has collected and saved over 1,000 digital files on his computers containing child pornography. The defendant was arrested on January 13, 2012, and had an initial appearance in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on child pornography shipping and transportation charges.

The defendant’s arrest last night stems from the FBI’s forensic examination of the computer equipment that was seized from the defendant’s bedroom on January 13, 2012. As alleged in the criminal complaint filed today, that examination revealed that in between approximately January 2008 and January 2011, the defendant, in addition to downloading and sharing child pornography with others on the P2P file sharing program, was also producing child pornography. Among the videos and images that the defendant allegedly produced is a video of the defendant touching a child’s penis and a video of the defendant spanking a naked child. Both incidents appeared to have occurred in a school classroom.

If convicted of possession of child pornography, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. If convicted of distribution of child pornography, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. If convicted of production of child pornography, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment. Anyone with information concerning this matter is asked to call the FBI at (212) 384-2700.

¹ The charges in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.