Elementary School Music Teacher admits to child porn (NY)

http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=625923&Category=REGIO
N&LinkFrom=RSS

Teacher admits to child porn
-- Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

First published: Saturday, September 29, 2007

ALBANY -- A Guilderland man who was working as a Wynantskill teacher when he
was arrested in 2006 on possession of child pornography charges pleaded
guilty Thursday in federal court and could face up to 10 years in prison,
authorities said.

Marc S. Sardella, 48, admitted to seeking out child pornography on the
Internet and downloading as many as 600 of the illegal images to his Apple
G5 computer, federal prosecutors said.

Sardella, who authorities say admitted to knowing the children in the images
were too young, was initially arrested by Guilderland police and charged in
local court but he pleaded guilty to the crime in U.S. District Court, which
has become the preferred venue for prosecuting child porn cases because of
generally harsher federal penalties.

The status of Sardella's job as a Gardner-Dickinson Elementary music teacher
could not be determined. In the days after his Jan. 28, 2006 arrest,
Sardella was suspended without pay and the school changed the locks on his
classroom.

In addition to serving up to 10 years in prison, Sardella faces up to a
$250,000 fine. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas
Spina Jr. in front of Judge Lawrence E. Kahn. Sentencing is Jan. 23.


http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18862811&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dep
t_id=602469&rfi=6

Teacher charged in child porn case
By SHAWN CHAR***, For The Saratogian
09/27/2007

ALBANY - A former Wynantskill Union Free School teacher pleaded guilty in
federal court Thursday to possessing over 600 images of child pornography
and faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, prosecutors said.

Marc S. Sardella, 48, a married father of five from Guilderland, was
arrested in January 2006. At the time, law enforcement officials said he
admitted bringing printed images of these materials into the school where he
worked for 20 years as a music teacher.

School officials said he resigned of his own accord over a year ago after
months of paid leave.

He was initially charged with one felony count, but local authorities soon
piled on 10 more charges. This week, he pled guilty to one felony count of
possession of child pornography and admitted downloading, viewing and
printing the images.

In court Thursday, Sardella admitted ownership of an Apple G5 computer
seized from his home.

Investigators say they found over 600 images of children in lascivious poses
on this computer, which was recovered by local police and the FBI.

Assistant US Attorney Thomas Spina, Jr., who prosecuted Sardella, said the
Guilderland cop who initially investigated the case is a member of a federal
cyber-crime task force, and the sheer number of images recovered from the
Mac tipped the scales away from local prosecution and into the federal
courts.

He is slated for sentencing on Jan. 23.


.

Quantcast