Child Predator, Porn Arrests

Written by LANNING TALIAFERRO (Patch Staff)

A Harrison man and a Brewster man were among 10 men, from ages 19 to 64, who were arrested as part of an undercover operation by Fairfield, CT police in which the men allegedly went to a Fairfield house expecting to have sex with a minor.

In a separate incident, a Yorktown elementary school teacher was arrested and arraigned as a result of a county investigation into a porn video he is alleged to have shared online.

The Fairfield sting, which started last Thursday and ran through the weekend, was run parallel to one conducted by former Dateline NBC journalist Chris Hansen of “To Catch a Predator” fame for a new show he is preparing called “Hansen vs. Predator.”

The men each thought he was meeting either a a 13-year-old boy or a 12-year-old girl that he had made a connection to on the Internet.

The Yorktown arrest came after Westchester County investigators looked into a video showing a girl’s genitals on a torrent site. The girl appeared to be 8 to 10 years old.

Michael G. Gentile, 64, Shawe Valley Lane, Brewster, faces charges of enticing a minor, criminal attempt at second-degree sexual assault and criminal attempt at risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor.

Michael Manzi, 32, Haviland Street, Harrison faces a charge of criminal attempt at risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor.

Jeffrey Whalen, 45, Evergreen Street, Yorktown Heights faces charges of promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child, a class D felony, and possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child, a class E felony,

Read the full story on the sting at the Connecticut Post here.

Read more about the teacher on Yorktown-Somers Patch.

Patch editors Vincent Salzo and Alfred Branch contributed to this report.