Federal Charges in Valley Stream Sex-Abuse Case
by Robert E. Kessler, Staff Writer
Originally published by Newsday, January 17, 2003
A Valley Stream man facing state charges that he sodomized a 4- year-old girl and two teenage boys was hit yesterday with new federal charges that could bring him 50 years in prison.
Bruce Wernick, 45, of 318 E. Euclid St., was arraigned yesterday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip on charges that he used a computer to lure two Long Island teenage boys to have sex with him, and that he produced, possessed and distributed child pornography using a computer, officials said.
Wernick's attorney, Bruce Barket, of Garden City, said his client was innocent of all charges. Barket added that county prosecutors had asked federal prosecutors to bring a case because their state cases were "weak," and it was easier to get convictions under federal procedures and sentences are much stiffer.
Eastern District federal prosecutor Richard Donoghue said his office had brought charges against Wernick in "the interests of justice" and that charges still remain against him in Suffolk and Nassau counties. It is, however, unusual for a person who receives a very stiff sentence in federal court to be tried later in a state court.
In court papers, prosecutors said that Wernick, under the names "Bart," "Userfriendly" and "BJGuy," used the Internet to contact other pedophiles and the teens.
Wernick has been charged in Suffolk County with sodomizing the 4- year-old daughter of a Dix Hills man with whom authorities say he exchanged child pornography, and with sodomizing a 15- and a 17- year-old boy he met on the Internet. He has been charged separately in Nassau County with possessing 500 illicit images of young children.
Wernick faces about 7 years in prison if convicted of the state charges, including the sodomizing of the 4-year-old girl on Long Island.
Sodomizing a child is a state crime, not a federal crime. But distributing pornography over the Internet and using the Internet to entice juveniles into having sex is a federal crime.
The father of the Dix Hills girl, whose name is not being used to protect the victim, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison and agreed to testify against Wernick, officials have said.
Donoghue said in court papers that prosecutors also have a statement from the father of a 5-year-old girl that he also allowed Wernick to sodomize his daughter.
Barket said that involves a case in Westchester where Wernick has not yet been charged and in which he is also innocent.
U.S. Magistrate William Wall ordered Wernick held without bail as a danger to the community. Wernick has been in county jails since his September 2001 arrest.
