KID-PORN SICKO
Bx. HS teacher busted for vile videos, photos
A veteran high school teacher was busted in his Bronx home Wednesday morning as authorities uncovered a sick stash of child pornography with boys as young as age 7, authorities announced.
Jonathan Schweitzer, 41, who has taught at the Belmont Preparatory High School since 2008, was taken into custody around 5:30 a.m., cops said. The suspect kept the photographs and videos on his home computer and a laptop, police sources told the Daily News.
The teacher’s vile trove of video and photographs showed children, mostly young boys, in sexual acts with one another and with older men, according to the sources.
Schweitzer was also involved with swapping the perverse photos via the dark web with other twisted traders, the sources indicated.
City Education Department spokesman Doug Cohen said Schweitzer started work at the high school on East Fordham Road in 2008 and had an otherwise clean work history.
“These are incredibly disturbing and saddening allegations, and Mr. Schweitzer was immediately removed from the classroom away from students,” Cohen said. “We will remove him from payroll and seek to fire him as soon as legally possible.”
Former Belmont Prep student William Marquez, 19, said he had science class with Schweitzer.
“I’m shocked,” he said. “No one would ever imagine something like this would ever happen in their school. It’s disgusting, very weird.”
Schweitzer appeared in Manhattan Federal Court late Wednesday wearing a raggedy shirt with “Flux Capacitor” on it, a nod to the popular 1980s “Back to the Future” movies. He showed little emotion and mostly looked at the judge.
He faces two charges: possession of child porn and distribution.
“He’s someone who was a fairly active distributor of the material. Not someone who was a passive receiver,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Herman said.
He will be released on $100,000 bond but must first be fitted with an ankle bracelet.
“There’s been no suggestion there’s been any inappropriate behavior with any student or any other minor,” his attorney Mark Gombiner said. “This has already been an extremely traumatic day for Mr. Schweitzer.”
Gombiner, a federal defender, said the judge need not worry about Schweitzer looking at more kid porn.
“The government already took his electronic devices. The last thing he wants to do is have anything to do with any electronic devices,” Gombiner said.