By REBECCA EVERETT
@GazetteRebecca
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — A Hampshire Superior Court grand jury this week indicted men from Southampton and Easthampton on charges that include distribution of child pornography.
James J. Smith, 61, of 53 Holyoke St., Easthampton, was indicted Tuesday on three counts of possession of child pornography and one count each of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity and distributing material depicting a child in the nude.
Bruce Singer, 68, of 36 Hillside Meadow Drive, Southampton, was indicted Tuesday on eight counts of possession of child pornography and seven counts of distributing child pornography.
Both men were arrested earlier this summer and pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court. They are scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 21 in Hampshire Superior Court.
Easthampton Detective Sgt. Mark Popielarczyk said he could not comment on whether the cases were related or investigated together. “It is an ongoing investigation,” he said Friday.
Smith, who is also listed in court documents as living on Golden Drive in Florence, is accused of taking photographs of a young girl he knew and emailing them or sending them via Facebook on several dates between Oct. 12, 2013, and Jan. 8, 2015. One indictment specifies that he allegedly sent an image to a Chicopee man.
Popielarczyk wrote in Northampton District Court documents that Easthampton, Northampton and State Police began investigating Smith in December 2014 after receiving a tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children about an image of child pornography that was reported by Facebook. They searched his Easthampton residence Jan. 8 and seized his digital devices, including a laptop and cell phone, which police said included 21 images he allegedly took of the girl.
Court records also allege that Singer, a retired New Jersey police officer, possessed child pornography and distributed it via two email addresses on several dates between May 26, 2013, and May 31, 2015. Easthampton, Southampton and State Police executed a search warrant at his Southampton home June 25, court records show, and allegedly found the images and videos on a laptop, cell phone, three external hard drives and three USB drives.
Northampton District Court records show that police arrested Singer during an investigation into people they believed were contacting each other through Craigslist about exchanging child pornography.
According to state law, convictions for distributing material depicting a child in the nude or posing a child in a state of nudity both carry prison sentences of between 10 and 20 years. A first offense charge of possession of child pornography carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Rebecca Everett can be reached at [email protected].
