RCFL: Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory

Teacher charged with distributing child porn

By David Levinsky
Burlington County Times
April 23, 2008

LUMBERTON — A teacher in the township middle school was arrested today on charges that he received and distributed child pornography from his home computer, authorities said.

Joseph E. Macanga, 54, a resident of Torrington Court in Lumberton, was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography following an eight-month investigation, Special Agent Sean Quinn, spokesman for the FBI’s Newark office said.

Macanga appeared in federal court this afternoon and was ordered to home confinement via electronic monitoring, Quinn said.

His arrest shocked school officials who described him as a respected 6th-grade language arts teacher who had worked at the Lumberton Middle School for the past 10 years. He was selected the school’s educator-of-the-year in 2003 and also coached intramural girls soccer and basketball at the school.

Federal court papers, unsealed after his arrest, indicated that an FBI investigation uncovered that Macanga had more than 300 images of child pornography on his computer as well as evidence he had distributed images in on-line chat rooms frequented by pedophiles.

According to court papers, it was in one of those chat rooms in August that an undercover agent in Tampa, Fla., first made contact with Macanga, who was using the screen name "bl040". Afterwards, agents obtained a subpoena that allowed them to trace the user name to Macanga and his address in Lumberton, a criminal complaint said.

Agents visited Macanga at his home in October and received his written consent to view files on his home computer. During a short review, agents found images depicting child pornography, leading them to seize the computer and obtain a court warrant for a detailed forensic examination, the complaint said.

Hundreds of images were found during the exam, including three described in the complaint as depicting nude men in lewd poses with underage boys, the complaint said. Agents also found evidence that Macanga had frequented some 30 chat rooms, where he distributed at least 16 images to other computer users, the complaint said.

During an interview with agents earlier this month, Macanga confessed to sending and receiving child pornography between October 2006 and October 2007 and that he was aware that possession of the images was a crime.

School officials were informed of the charges against Macanga this morning after he was taken into custody, Lumberton School District spokeswoman Betsy Kapulskey said in a press release.

The release indicated that district officials were informed that no Lumberton students were involved. No inappropriate images were found on Macanga’s school computer, Kapulskey said.

Superintendent of Schools Frank Logandro said a school crisis management team would be on hand at the middle school today to provide counseling to any students who need it. Information about the arrest was also distributed to all district parents today.

"Our district family is stunned and saddened by today’s revelation," Logandro said in the press release. "Mr. Macanga has been a leader in the school and a pillar in the Lumberton community. As a teacher, he has always publicly conducted himself in only the most respectful and sincere manner."

Kapulskey said the school board planned to meet tomorrow night to take formal action to suspend Macanga.

"He will not be coming back to the district," she said.

-end-

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