Boxer Aide Charged In Child Porn Sting

WASHINGTON — A high-level aide to California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer has been charged in federal court with receiving and distributing child pornography.

The aide, Jeff Rosato, 32, was arrested last Friday. Boxer's office fired him that same day upon learning of the charges.

Rosato appeared in federal court in suburban northern Virginia on Wednesday and was released to home detention on condition he not interact with children or use a computer. He was not required to post bail or bond money but is being told to undergo medical treatment.

"On Friday, the Justice Department informed our office of criminal charges made against a Senate employee. Sen. Boxer has zero tolerance for crimes against children, and the employee was immediately terminated," Boxer spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said in a statement Thursday. "Our office is cooperating fully with the Department of Justice in this matter."

Rosato had worked for Boxer since early 2005, beginning in her personal office as a legislative assistant and last year becoming a counsel to the Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer chairs. His areas of expertise included water policy, oceans and endangered species.

Rosato's attorney, Patrick N. Anderson of Alexandria, Va., did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

According to an affidavit by FBI special agent Chad Gallagher supporting the criminal complaint and arrest warrant, Rosato was tracked through a now-defunct Google program called Google Hello. He allegedly exchanged hundreds of pornographic images with another user who'd been sharing child porn images and movies with an undercover detective posing as a 13-year-old boy.

Investigators subpoenaed Google Inc. and Comcast in order to identify Rosato and last week executed a search warrant on his Arlington, Va., home, seizing computers and hard drives.

A preliminary review of Rosato's personal laptop computer, which was in his bedroom, found some 200 child porn images and some videos, according to the affidavit. "Many of the images and videos depict prepubescent boys engaged in sexual acts," the affidavit stated.

The criminal complaint charged Rosato with one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography, both felonies.

The charges were first reported Thursday by The (Washington) Examiner newspaper.

(This version CORRECTS that Rosato was allegedly exchanging pornographic images with another computer user who was communicating with an undercover detective.)

Comments

[Paisano]

Why did we have to subponea Google. Doesn't Google spy on us anyway?????

[anghiari]

Anybody still questioning Obama's stringent job applications and vetting Process?????

[msean]

What does an aide to Barbara Boxer, hired three years ago, have to do with Obama's application and vetting process?

[hopefulinflorida]

If you like to look at child porn then you like to have sex with children. He just hasn't been caught yet

[MsLiz]

He may not have had sex with an actual child, but actual children were photographed performing sexual acts. That's downright nasty.

[dearlizzie]

Considering children objects of desire is deeply disturbing. A charge of receiving and viewing child pornography is shocking. Thank heavens there is no charge involving real victims. That said, it is no less disturbing, if you think about it, to see Senator Boxer ignoring a fundamental aspect of our law: a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps the employee has confessed, in which case, that should have been clearly explained. Otherwise who knows, maybe his roommate was using his lap top? We don't know. But as it is. we are left with the story of a person who should be presumed innocent yet is being treated as guilty before any guilty plea, trial or conviction.

We abhor profiling; we are outraged by a flawed system that now available DNA testing shows possibly 16% of death row inmates have tragically been put to death but were innocent. We should be equally unsettled by someone being fired for merely being charged with a crime, however horrendous or shocking. I'm not sure what you do if you're in Senator Boxer's shoes, but putting the alleged child porn receiver on leave of absence and holding off firing someone pending a plea or a conviction would seem more just and respectful of our legal and moral beliefs.

[Noir Kiss3]

Not to be picky but>>
"Thank heavens there is no charge involving real victims"
Aren't the kids in the photos victims?

[MsLiz]

Thank you for noticing that.

The legal presumption of innocence applies in a courtroom. Period.

And the "it was my roomate's" defense hasn't worked since we graduated from college. If you have a roomate who is into child porn, and let him into your bedroom to use your computer, you are creepy stupid.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

What the hell is wrong with people?! I really just can't understand that kind of sickiness.

I grew up in Europe....and can't recall a single instance of any child molestation. Although the word around town was that if there was ever such a thing, there would be no lengthy trial and misuse of tax dollars to feed and house the offender. He would simply disappear. Somehow... that seemed to deter this sort of behavior.

[MsLiz]

Hey when I was a kid, no one ever heard of child molestation because kids and parents covered it up. Just because you never heard of an instance of molestation doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[Ms Fu]

I can't imagine how I would feel about working with someone and then discovering they were a fan of child pornography. What kind of disgusting human being indulges in filth that enslaves and debases the most innocent in society? I bet Senator Boxer feels dirty just having been in the same room with that man.

[MCTSilverlakeCA]

This is not Senator Boxer's problem, it's the employee's problem. But let's make sure that this child porn lover gets exactly what he deserves...and oh, no plea's of "insanity", or that he's living in a dream world and so should only serve a few years... and oh, don't forget to make SURE that when he claims he doesn't have any assets to seize, that someone actually CHECKS to make sure... there's a scam story out there that a lot of these child porn lovers, particularly the computer types are all using the same stories to get out of long sentences, and are hiding their assets so they can't be seized ... (which is a law set into place to get back the costs of prosecuting these ugly slimy toads).

[Ramirez]

This is not a reflection on Senator Boxer. I'm sure she and her staff were shocked by the news. She handled this quickly and as best as she could.

[Pdubya]

only republicans are hypocrits and wackos.

[Britta100]

Well, they kinda are hypocrites when they constantly preach "family values" and don't practice those same values. It really isn't a big deal if a democrat is gay, or gets divorced or has an affair, or has a pregnant unwed teenage daughter etc. because they don't put themselves out there as being morally superior or the party of "family values", and I hope they never do. Most democrats and social liberals believe in gay rights, that it's no one's business what goes on between married couples, comprehensive sex ed for teens, etc. Republicans/social conservatives don't seem to get it that when you present yourself as morally superior you're held to a higher standard.

[Britta100]

I also should add that my reply above had nothing to do with this particular issue because no one, whether conservative or liberal, condones child pornography.

[ohmetoo]

Let's hope Senator Boxer has zero tolerance for crimes against tax payers, bailout monies misspent for corporate excesses and partying, and zero tolerance for medical and pension benefits for felons with Senator, or Congressman as the preface to their given names. I applaud her zero tolerance for any crime against a child or young person also. Hang all pedophiles is my mantra, no tolerance there sorry to say.

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

they'll love him in prison

[ILikeH00ters]

These some sick Mo....Fo...rs.

[SoD1]

Hmm.. I have my own little "thesis" about this phenomena of power.
Since ultimate power corrupt ultimately, it is an easy step to the
ultimate crime in this society - no, not murder, those people do
that everyday indirectly - Paedophilia's!
And it is "possibly" wider spread among "power'.

[JohnDewey]

If you ever get the chance, watch Pasolini's, "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom." It illustrates the repulsive truth of what you're saying by imagining the decrepit end of Mussolini's circle. It was banned all over the world for a long time, but I believe it's newly in print again.

Pasolini was an Italian political radical who came from a background of bourgeois privilege but came to reject its implications. He had an extensive knowledge of history as well as an incisive perspective on the ways that politics expresses the psyche of a society. He understood that the circumstances which created & fueled fascist Italy were neither unique nor inhuman.

[Itchybiscuit]

120 Days of Sodom wasn't 'imagining' the end of Mussolini's reign, it was written by the Marquis de Sade, adapted by Pasolini and set during the latter days of WWII by the director.

[paulsamuel]

didn't Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) also have an aide charged with possessing images of child pornography?

[Ramirez]

Yes. James Michael McHaney, 28. He was arrested in Dec 2007.

[b-rad81]

gross

[BarackMan]

totally.....