Parents vouch for teacher caught with child porn

[azathoth777]

A former teacher accused of possessing child pornography and running a Web site devoted to the topic of torturing and cannibalizing children was actually a caring and devoted teacher who wouldn't harm anyone, parents told a federal judge Wednesday.

Michael Kelly Reiner, 46, pleaded not guilty last week to federal child pornography charges in connection with images investigators say they found on his computers. Reiner, who had worked at the Long Island School for the Gifted in Huntington Station for 18 years, was fired last week after his arrest.

At a bail hearing Wednesday, federal prosecutor Allen Bode argued that Reiner should remain in custody and expanded on the government's case against the East Meadow resident, which began in August after Canadian customs officials searched his computer at a border crossing.

Bode said federal investigators have found 569 still images of child pornography and 68 videos on three of Reiner's nine computers that they have analyzed so far. They also found 2,000 stories on the computers that relate to sexually abusing, torturing and eating children, Bode said.

"These are literally stomach-churning stories," Bode said. "This is the world he fantasized about."

Bode said that investigators also found lists of children, complete with names, addresses, dates of birth and weights, on the computers, as well as evidence that Reiner obsessively followed real cases of missing and murdered children.

But this portrait clashed with the one painted by parents who testified at the request of U.S. Magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson. Tomlinson reserved decision on bail.

Nina Schaffer testified that Reiner was a sensitive teacher who bonded with her seventh-grade son and who wouldn't hurt anyone.

"They're focusing on a Web site, not an act," Schaffer said.

Schaffer said the allegations did not fit what she knew about Reiner, who admitted to Canadian authorities that he had a fetish for "young boys, slavery and cannibalism," according to court papers.

"The man they're calling a cannibal is a vegetarian," she said.

Parent Randi Kessler, who also has a son in seventh grade, said if Reiner posed a danger to society, someone would have noticed it in the 18 years he spent as a teacher.

Federal public defender Randi Chavis said the allegations were disturbing, but they do not mean her client is a threat.

"As disturbing as this case is and the images in it are, it involves no indication of any inappropriate contact with children," Chavis said.

Until his arrest, Reiner had lived in East Meadow with his brother, his brother's wife and their two young boys, ages 8 and 10. Much of Wednesday's bail hearing involved discussions of where Reiner could live, away from children, if he is granted bail.

[Vodstok]

They can say what sweet guy he was and that he wouldnt hurt a fly, great. Possesion of child pornography is a felony, and he should be locked up and never allowed near children again for that alone. Idiots...