Long Island child therapist Renee Hoberman charged with distribution of child sexual abuse images

A Long Island child therapist exchanged sexually explicit videos of infants and made references to "hands-on touching" of kids in online chat rooms, federal prosecutors said at her arraignment Wednesday.

Renee Hoberman, 36, of Plainview, pleaded not guilty to a single count of distribution of child pornography at her arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene Lindsay in Central Islip. She was ordered held without bail at the federal detention center in Brooklyn.

"Hoberman distributed heinous and disturbing child pornography, including videos showing infants being restrained and raped. Additionally, while posing as a man, Hoberman, who is a therapist serving children, claimed to have produced child pornography and offered others the opportunity to sexually abuse children," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.

Lindsay called Hoberman, who was taken into custody by federal officials Wednesday morning, "a danger to the community."

The arrest follows a monthslong investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations and Nassau County police, court records show. Investigators said Hoberman, who also goes by the first name Rina, has worked since 2022 as a therapist for LifeStance Health in Melville, where she advertises her services for working with children up to age 17, according to a criminal complaint.

Officials with LifeStance Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hoberman has also provided youth counseling services to children at an Amityville hospital since 2016, court papers show.

Agents received more than a dozen tips since June from officials with the Kik online messaging platform reporting that Hoberman had uploaded child abuse images under accounts she had set up, according to the complaint.

The explicit videos depicted children 2 years or younger being raped by adult males, court records show. "The infants cried and frantically screamed for the duration of the videos," Peace's office said in a news release. 

A special agent with HSI also alleged in a statement that Hoberman had posed as an adult male and bragged online about sexually abusing his own children, the complaint states. Hoberman, pretending to be the man, then sent two videos presented as the man sexually abusing the kids, and invited others to come to New York to abuse the kids themselves, the investigator said.

A cellphone seized from Hoberman when she was arrested at her home in Plainview Wednesday included a folder containing the videos, prosecutors said.

During questioning while in federal custody Wednesday, Hoberman told investigators she is "sexually aroused and gratified by children, with a preference for children from infancy to age three, and that she prefers violent depictions of children in child pornography," according to the complaint.

"This speaks to a clear danger to the community, especially given her professional role, having access to children and advertising herself to the general public as a therapist for children," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Simmons told Lindsay.

Defense attorney Evan Sugar, of the Federal Defenders of New York, said that while it is alleged his client made certain admissions regarding the distribution of child pornography, she "denied allegations of hands-on touching."

"As your honor knows, there are often cases where there's kind of fantasy chat that takes place that's not bounded in reality," Sugar told Lindsay. 

Sugar told the judge that he is discussing with Hoberman's family the possibility of putting together a bail package, but they had not been able to do so before arraignment.

Sugar declined additional comment outside of court.

Hoberman received a bachelor's degree in sociology in 2011 and her MSW in 2015, according to an online bio, which adds that she has experience working with children under 12 and has interned in elementary schools. She received her license as a master social worker in October 2015, according to a New York State Education Department database.

CORRECTION: Renee Hoberman is a child therapist. An earlier version of this story misstated her title.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.