'98 Percent' of Charges Waived, Reduced in Child Porn Case

Arriving to the Broomall District Court with his mother and father by his side, Francis H. Cavone Jr., of Havertown, waived his preliminary hearing on Monday afternoon. The case will now head to county court, with an arraignment scheduled for August 18 at the Court of Common Pleas in Media.

According to defense counsel, nearly 98 percent of the charges were dismissed or reduced, as a part of the negotiated waiver. Cavone declined to comment upon exiting the court room.

Cavone was on June 9 on five counts of dissemination of child pornography and 100 counts of possession of child pornography, stemming from an online sting operation conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police on March 14 of 2011.

According to court documents, state trooper Kevin Garhart was monitoring known child pornography files located on the widely-used Gnutella peer-to-peer file sharing network. Garhart observed the Internet Protocol address of a computer attempting to download one of the known files, and traced the address back to Cavone's residence, which he shares with his parents.

On May 4, county and local detectives executed a search warrant on the Cavone residence, uncovering 86 video files containing apparent child pornography and a large amount of pictures of child pornography.

"The total number of these pictures of child erotica and child pornography number in excess of 1,700 pictures," the affidavit states.

Court records show that Cavone cooperated with police while the search warrant was executed, stating that a four year cocaine addiction frequently led him to search for child pornography on the Internet. He insisted that despite the charges, he has never harmed his two youngest children, ages 2 and 4.

Cavone remains out on bail after posting 10 percent of his $50,000 bail. He also has retained full custody of his two youngest children. His other two children live with his estranged wife in New Jersey.

Serving as defense counsel is Steven Pacillio, a former Delaware County Assistant District Attorney and founding member of the county's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.