A teachers’ aide in a Brooklyn elementary school faces up to 50 years in jail after pleading guilty to filming child pornography in the classroom where he worked.
Taleek Brooks, 42, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of producing and distributing the illegal materials before a judge at a federal court in the New York City borough.
Brooks, who works as an aide at Public School 243, was accused of having “regularly downloaded and distributed videos and images depicting child pornography over the Internet through a peer-to-peer file sharing program," the FBI said.
In December 2001, Brooks accepted a friend request on the peer-to-peer network. That person was an undercover agent who was able to access and download graphic videos and images.
The next month, agents moved on Brooks’ home with a warrant and confiscated a computer and two external hard drives. During their investigation of the equipment, agents found hundreds of video and images depicting child pornography.
A forensic look at the equipment uncovered a folder labeled “special,” where they found a video in which Brooks can be heard giving directions to a young child to perform explicit sexual acts.
Investigators later confirmed that the child was a student and PS 243 and that the video was made on school grounds, the statement said.
Brooks will be sentenced in May.
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