Ex elementary school teacher admits to making child pornography videos using multiple hidden cameras in summer camp
A man who used to work as an elementary school teacher in New Jersey has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges after taking an explicit photo of a student during a summer camp. Thomas Guzzi Jr. pleaded guilty to official misconduct, manufacturing child pornography and distributing child pornography files. He had hidden cameras during a summer camp and had taken photos at the Broadway Theatre of Pitman camp, in which he served as a manager.
Guzzi also taught at Winslow Elementary School in Vineland. He also admitted that he would make videos of teen boys at the camp's bathroom and one of them had their genitals exposed. The 39-year-old man from Gloucester County has been fired from the school and had his license suspended.
The former teacher is said to have kept multiple hidden cameras at the camp, some at the backstage bathroom and the space where the rehearsals took place. Guzzi also had hundreds of files of child pornography on computers seized from his home.
He would make child porn, he admitted, and one of them was a porn music video of a child. He said that he had put in footage of the child passing urine beside footage of him at the dance rehearsals. The photo of the boy who had his genitalia exposed was taken by him at another such camp. The incident occurred in 2015 and he had been arrested in February 2016. His arrest was part of a joint effort between the attorney General's office, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the New Jersey State Police.
In a statement, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said that Guzzi had "callously violated that trust by photographing and videotaping young boys for his sexual gratification, including a vulnerable student at a school where he taught. With this guilty plea, Guzzi is facing justice for so heinously betraying the innocent children who were entrusted to his care."
“Child pornography robs children of their innocence and further exploits them when these images are shared online,” said Jeff Kocher, Resident Agent in Charge, Cherry Hill Homeland Security Investigations. "HSI will continue to aggressively pursue these child predators and work as in this case with other law enforcement partners."
Guzzi had been caught through a sting called Operation Safeguard, where authorities had been monitoring online file-sharing networks to nab offenders. They also found other New Jersey residents who were making child porn as well. Guzzi was nabbed after he shared three folders containing child porn with a US Homeland Security special agent, as a part of the sting. He was caught with four computers, three iPads and two phones on him.
He pleaded guilty and according to the terms of the agreement, could be locked up for up to 17 years with parole after 10 years. He would have to register as a sex offender and will be banned from public employment. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 27.