LI Man Gets Additional Porn Charge
By Keiko Morris, Staff Writer
Originally published in Newsday, June 29, 2002
A Valley Stream man indicted in Suffolk on charges that he exchanged child pornography with a Dix Hills man and that he sodomized the man's young daughter was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead on an additional charge of possessing more than 500 pornographic images of young children.
Bruce Wernick, 44, of 318 E. Euclid St., was taken from Suffolk County jail, where was being held in lieu of a $500,000 cash bail, to Hempstead on Tuesday and arraigned for possession of a sexual performance by a child under the age of 16. His bail was set at $5,000 bond or $3,500 cash.
Police said Wernick met the Dix Hills man, who is not being named to protect the identity of his daughter, now 5, in a chat room on the Internet in July 2001. The Dix Hills man later went to Wernick's home to show him his collection of child pornography, said Crimes Against Property Det. Robert Shaw.
On May 31, the Dix Hills man pleaded guilty to first-degree engaging in a course of sexual conduct with a child, three child pornography felonies and endangering the welfare of a child. He agreed to testify against Wernick if necessary in exchange for an 18-year prison sentence.
The Dix Hills man admitted to prosecutors that he had engaged in sexual conduct with his daughter since she was several months old, took pictures of her performing sexual acts and disseminated them to other men over the Internet. He also admitted that he left his daughter alone with Wernick several times, knowing of Wernick's sexual interest in children.
Suffolk County detectives alerted Nassau detectives to Wernick in September 2001. After obtaining a search warrant, Nassau detectives seized Wernick's computer on Sept. 28, which contained more than 500 images of child pornography, Shaw said. Suffolk detectives, who accompanied Nassau police, arrested Wernick that day for endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. However, Wernick was indicted in Suffolk a month later on additional charges, including first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse and has been in jail since then.
Wernick's attorneys declined to comment.
