Ridgewood Middle School Teacher Used Venmo to Buy Child Porn: Feds

Eric Paulino (Facebook)

Aug. 28, 2019 By Allie Griffin

A Ridgewood middle school teacher was arrested yesterday for possession of child pornography — which he bought and traded on the popular mobile payment app Venmo — according to federal authorities. 

Eric Paulino, who has been a teacher at I.S. 93 in Ridgewood since 2018 (according to multiple reports), used an online alias and made purchases via Venmo from “a known purveyor of child pornography,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court. 

The FBI then searched his home and found numerous images and videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct on Paulino’s iPhone. 

“Teachers are trusted by parents to protect and educate their children, which makes the thought of a teacher allegedly downloading illegal child pornography all that more disturbing,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney.  “The FBI New York Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force works every day to stop predators from exploiting children, and further victimizing those exposed to hands on offenders who create images shared on the internet.”

During the court-authorized search, Paulino, 30, admitted to downloading and trading child pornography on his mobile phone, the complaint states.

Paulino was arraigned Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court and was released after posting $250,000 bond. 

“Paulino, while employed in a position of trust as a New York City school teacher, purchased child pornography on the Internet, contributing to the abuse and victimization of children,” stated United States Attorney Richard Donoghue.  “Prosecuting those who feed the market for child pornography, whether producers or consumers, will always be a priority of this Office and our law enforcement partners.”