A Garden City Boy Scout leader is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on felony child pornography charges, Nassau County prosecutors said.
Edward Orenchuk III, 23, was arrested Wednesday at his Wheeler Avenue home on three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and three counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, prosecutors said.
If convicted, he faces up to 7 years in prison.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that between August and September, investigators from her office "observed Orenchuk making multiple images of child pornography available over the Internet for download by other people," according to a news release.
Investigators tracked the source of those images to Orenchuk's home, the release said. Orenchuk implicated himself during the execution of a search warrant at his home, indicating that he had hundreds of images on his personal computer, prosecutors said.
Orenchuk is employed as a page at the Garden City Public Library. He also is an Eagle Scout who serves as an assistant scout master with Boy Scout Troop 243 in Garden City, prosecutors said.
"This defendant's regular contact with children in a position of authority makes these charges that much more disturbing," Rice said in the release.
Garden City Library director Carolyn Voegler said she was unaware of the charges until she read the news reports Wednesday. She said Orenchuk has been taken off the library's work schedule.
Leaders for Troop 243 could not immediately be reached for comment.
But the Massapequa-based Theodore Roosevelt Council of Boy Scouts, which serves nearly 10,500 youth and 294 scouting units, including Troop 243, issued a statement saying it was "shocked to learn about the allegations," which run "counter to everything for which the Boy Scouts of America stands."
A spokesman for the council said Thursday morning that Orenchuk's membership has been revoked.
The council statement also said "our thoughts and prayers go out to anyone who may be a victim of this type of behavior."
With Ann Givens ___
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