Westchester Sports Hall Of Famer Accused Of Child Porn Possession

SOMERS, NY — A former social studies teacher and Westchester County Sports Hall of Famer was accused of having child pornography.

Richard Leaf, 72, of Somers, was arrested Tuesday and charged with receiving child pornography and possessing child pornography. The former charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, with a maximum of 20 years. The latter carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

He appeared in White Plains federal court Tuesday.

Audrey Strauss, the United State Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said child pornography inflicts immeasurable damage on innocent victims and her office will continue to identify and charge anyone engaged in such conduct.

"Richard Leaf is alleged to have engaged in deeply disturbing sexual communications with minors," she said, "and in being in possession of child pornography."

According to prosecutors, Leaf posed as a teenager named "Alex Bronson" between March 2019 and April 2020 to communicate via Skype with a minor, who Leaf believed was 15 years old.

During the communications, the minor sent Leaf a pornographic video of himself in the shower and a fully nude photo of himself in a bedroom, police said.

Authorities said they found almost a dozen images and videos containing child pornography on Leaf's home computer.

Leaf is accused of creating fake accounts on Chat Avenue, an online chatroom, and Skype to communicate with minors, prosecutors said.

The usernames, as provided by Strauss's office, include: alex bronson, sportsboi.15, alex15, 15brandon, zach.914, runnerboi.14, austinf19, sportsgirl.914, brandon.williams.23, dan.dan77771, beachsand.7 and Austin A.

The FBI said, if you have information to report or if you interacted or sent under-age photos or videos of a sexual nature to any of those accounts, call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Leaf, a former social studies teacher in Harrison and local sports announcer, was inducted into the Westchester County Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, the Journal News said.

Leaf told the Journal News that he didn't know how the pornographic images got on his computer and suggested that he was hacked.