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Former NJ Teacher Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges

Thomas Guzzi was a teacher at Winslow Elementary School until his arrest in 2016

What to Know

  • Former elementary school teacher Thomas Guzzi Jr. has admitted to misconduct, including recording boys with a hidden camera at a camp.
  • The 39-year-old was a teacher at Winslow Elementary School and a stage manager for the Broadway Theatre of Pitman camp.
  • Guzzi would face up to 17 years in prison with parole eligibility after 10 years when sentenced in September.

A former New Jersey elementary school teacher has admitted recording boys with a hidden camera at a summer camp and taking an explicit photo of a student.

Thomas Guzzi Jr. pleaded guilty Tuesday to official misconduct, manufacturing child pornography and distributing child pornography files.

The 39-year-old was a stage manager for the Broadway Theatre of Pitman camp and had taught at Winslow Elementary School in Vineland. He admitted manufacturing child pornography with video of teenage boys taken in the camp's restrooms and also taking a photo of a boy exposing his genitals.

“Like many child predators, Guzzi sought out positions of trust in which children were placed under his supervision,” Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a prepared statement. “He then callously violated that trust by photographing and videotaping young boys for his sexual gratification, including a vulnerable student at a school where he taught. With this guilty plea, Guzzi is facing justice for so heinously betraying the innocent children who were entrusted to his care.”

Under terms of a plea agreement, Guzzi would face up to 17 years in prison with parole eligibility after 10 years when sentenced in September. He would have to register as a sex offender and be barred from public employment.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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