Child Porn Charges For School Worker

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Middletown resident James Paroline, who had worked at two area private schools, remains in federal custody for what federal law enforcement authorities are alleging was inappropriate contact with minor children and for possessing child pornography on his home computer.
Paroline, 26, was scheduled for a bail hearing in federal court in Trenton on July 9. But that appearance was adjourned and no new date has yet been set and Paroline continues to be incarcerated, according to William Skaggs, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
FBI agents executed a search warrant on July 7, confiscating Paroline’s home desktop computer. Investigators determined that on Feb. 26, March 1 and March 2 Paroline allegedly accessed a website and downloaded to his computer material showing prepubescent minors, some of the material showing those as young as infancy to 5, engaged in sexually explicit acts.
During an interview with investigators on July 7, having waived his Miranda rights, authorities alleged Paroline admitted while working at the schools he “inappropriately touched minor children,” according to the criminal complaint.
Paroline is represented by Andrea Bergman, an assistant federal public defender in Trenton, who did not return calls seeking comment.
Federal Authorities in a criminal complaint said Paroline had been working as an assistant at a nursery school and as a summer camp counselor at a private school, both located in Monmouth County. Subsequently, representatives from each of the facilities acknowledged the nursery school is A Child’s Place, Lincroft, and the private school is the Ranney School, an independent pre-K-12 school in Tinton Falls.
“We are shocked, upset and disheartened by the charges,” said John Griffith, Ranney’s head of school. Paroline had worked as a sports specialist at the school’s summer camp for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 summers. Prior to that he had worked as a junior camp counselor going back to 2005.
Paroline had worked at A Child’s Place for the last two summers.
Both facilities fired Paroline upon his July 7 arrest.
“We are devastated,” Linda Littenberg, A Child’s Place’s owner, said. “…[W]e cannot express more strongly how shocked, outraged, and concerned we are about this situation.”
Littenberg said A Child’s Place employees are cooperating fully with the FBI in its investigation.
“Our paramount concern right now is for the children and their families,” Littenberg continued, saying the school has engaged a team of licensed child abuse specialists, “and we are working with our parents to keep them abreast of the situation.”
Ranney does “extensive” background checks on all camp staff members are 18 or older, conducted by National Background Investigation, a nationwide company, according to Griffith.
Ranney representatives’ “primary concern” is working with authorities during their investigation and “to focus on the safety and well-being” of summer camp participants and their families, Paroline said.
Over the course of Paroline’s career, Griffith added, “there was never a complaint about him” and “he had no record of wrongdoing to our knowledge.
 
– By John Burton