News

LOS ANGELES - Nineteen suspects, among whom are said to be two registered sex offenders, face child porn charges following a Southern California sweep by local and federal law enforcement that followed a long investigation. The Los Angeles Times reported three of the nineteen, including a children's television worker, have pleaded guilty in the case already. The charges in the entire case include exploitation of children, possessing and receiving child porn, and even enticing minors to have sex, assistant U.S. attorney Sally Meloch told the newspaper, saying the suspects came "from all walks of life."

Former teacher Scott Alan Ellsworth was one of the arrested suspects, accused of keeping child porn on a California State University at Northridge library computer. Former Los Angeles County Office of Education worker Steven Eichert is accused of possessing child porn, this after he was prosecuted earlier for unauthorized office computer access, the Times said.

Humberto Castaneda Padilla was charged with using the Internet to lure a minor to have sex, unaware his target was an undercover police officer.

The three who agreed to plead guilty at the outset, the Times said, include children's television producer Jason Michael Handy, Jeffrey Resnick, and Marvin Gerhard Starr.

The remaining suspects, all charged with child porn possession or distribution, the newspaper said, are Ricardo Antonia Arana, Thomas Raymond Casselberry III, Robert J. Fitch, Jesse J. Fowlkes, David M. Hotz, Donald Ikari, Paul Nyhan, James O'Neill, Zeev Vardi, Don Woodfield, Raymond A. Yoder, and Marcus W. Fox, the last named arrested earlier in October.