A college ASL professor from Marlborough faces child pornography charges

MARLBOROUGH — A local man is facing federal charges after authorities said he distributed pornography featuring children as young as 4 on social media.

Federal authorities arrested Larry Stephen, 44, on Monday at his Crosby Road home. He is charged with the receipt, distribution and possession of child pornography.

According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, the federal Department of Homeland Security Investigations office began an investigation in May after its Virginia office started an investigation into the distribution of child pornography on an unnamed social media platform.

Agents in Virginia had begun an investigation into the dissemination of the child pornography on the social media platform and an undercover agent exchanged messages with a user named "Mango."

'Several uploads': Marlborough man charged with uploading child pornography

According to the affidavit, Mango said he was interested in "little girls" as young as 2. He sent the undercover agent a photo of himself, saying he lived in Massachusetts but was an American Sign Language professor three days a week during the fall and spring semesters.

Mango posted several videos involving young children having sex with adults in a "room" dedicated to incest on the social media platform, according to the affidavit.

Suspect works for college in Maryland

The agents obtained a warrant to determine who Mango was through his email provider. According to the affidavit, it was registered to Stephen.

Stephen is coordinator the Montgomery College ASL program. He works at the Rockville, Maryland, campus.

The investigation moved to Massachusetts, with a New England agent creating a profile on the social media platform, where he said Stephen — still using Mango as his screen name — posted several pornographic videos of children between June 1 and June 7.

On June 7, federal authorities served a search warrant at Stephen's home and seized his phone and other electronics. According to the federal affidavit, Stephen admitted to being a member of the social media platform but denied viewing or distributing child pornography.

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"Stephen stated that he had received child pornography from someone on WhatsApp and "Social Media Platform A" once in the past," according to the affidavit. "Stephen further stated someone added him to the group, 'Family Taboo' on Social Media Platform A. Stephen further stated that he saw other users disseminating child pornography in that group and left the group."

Suspect has had initial court appearance

According to the affidavit, Stephen gave investigators permission to log on into this phone. They logged onto the unnamed social media platform and found evidence of Stephen sending the illegal videos.

When confronted with the alleged evidence, Stephen said "he could explain," but continued to deny distributing the video, authorities said in the affidavit.

Authorities arrested Stephen on Monday; he had an initial appearance Tuesday in federal court. He was released without bail but ordered to not have or use any electronic devices and to have no unsupervised contact with children.

According to his Montgomery College staff biography, Stephen is originally from Trinidad and Tobago and attended the Marie Philip School at the Learning Center of the Deaf in Framingham.

Montgomery College, in a statement, said Stephen has been placed on administrative leave.

"Montgomery College learned Wednesday, July 19, that a faculty member, Larry Stephen, was arrested at his residence in Massachusetts on charges related to child pornography," the college said in its statement. "He was immediately placed on administrative leave and removed from all duties."

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date public safety news, follow him on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Marlborough man accused of distributing child porn on social media