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Employee of NYC mayor faces child pornography charges
Criminal Defense
A Democratic activist and staffer for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration was arrested after police found thousands of child pornography photos and videos on his computer.
Jacob Schwartz, 29, was charged with possessing a sexual performance by a child under the age of 16 and promoting a sexual performance by a child. Both are felonies. He turned himself in and handed over his laptop to the NYPD Computer Crimes Unit in Manhattan’s 13th Precinct.
Police found 89 videos and 3,000 photos on Schwartz’s laptop. The youngest children in some of the pornographic images were reportedly just six months old. According to court documents, the illicit content featured “young, nude females between the approximate ages of 6 months and 16, engaging in sexual conduct … on an adult male.”
Schwartz was an employee of the Department of Design and Construction, as well as the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats. Following his arrest, his access to all city offices, as well as work computers and emails, was immediately blocked.
A spokeswoman for de Blasio released a statement saying that Schwartz had no connection to the mayor’s office. She also said that he was immediately fired from his position as a computer programmer analyst.
Schwartz’s lawyer told New York Daily News, “If the alleged actions are true, it really seems like a product of someone with a psychological problem calling out for help, not to evade the law … He surrendered his computer and gave them consent to search.” Schwartz was released on $7,000 bail.