By
Leigh Remizowski and Pamela Brown, CNN
(CNN)
-- The police chief of Mount Pleasant, New York, was arrested Thursday on
charges of possession of child pornography, authorities said.
Brian
Fanelli, 54, was arrested at his home in upstate Mahopac after a months-long
investigation by federal officials, said James Hayes, Jr., special agent in
charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York.
The
chief allegedly used a peer-to-peer file sharing program to download more than
120 images and videos of child pornography, prosecutors said.
Fanelli
was released on $50,000 bond Thursday evening, according to CNN affiliate WCBS.
A judge ordered him to home confinement with electronic monitoring. His
computers and guns were confiscated, WCBS reported.
Investigators
identified Fanelli in October 2013 while investigating peer-to-peer networks
being used to download sexually explicit content.
"We
moved rather swiftly given his prominence in the community, his trust that had
been placed upon him by those in the community and his close relationships with
the community," Hayes told CNN.
As
police executed a search warrant at his home Thursday, Fanelli voluntarily told
investigators that he began viewing child pornography about one year ago.
Fanelli told investigators that he first started collecting the child porn as
research for a sexual abuse awareness program he taught to elementary and
middle-school students. But he said he later continued downloading it for
personal interest , according to the office of U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York Preet Bharara.
Fanelli
had worked for the police department in Mount Pleasant, a town about 30 miles
north of New York City, since November 1981, according to Joan Maybury, the
town supervisor.
He
has been suspended as chief, a post he took in November -- one month after he
became the target of the child porn investigation.
"The
fact of the matter is the general public impression of people who commit these
crimes is [that of] an unemployed pervert in his mother's basement," Hayes
said. "That's not our experience. We're finding that the people who commit
these crimes are educated professionals, people in many different fields, and
unfortunately this is not the first law enforcement officer that we've arrested
for this crime."
Homeland
Security investigators have been more involved in child pornography cases in
recent years because they often involve the transmission of sexually explicit
images of children from outside the United States, Hayes said.
Fanelli
faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000
if convicted, according to the statement.
