Ex-NYPD officer arrested on child porn charges

A former New York City police officer who authorities said uploaded child pornography onto a file-sharing Web site was arrested Monday and charged with multiple counts of possessing and promoting a sexual performance of a child, Nassau police said.

Thomas Cicero, 33, of East Meadow, was in police custody Monday night. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday before a judge in Nassau County First District Court in Hempstead.

Nassau police said Cicero transferred at least five videos of children being sexually abused onto a Web site where others can retrieve them. Some of the children may have been as young as 2 years old, police said.

"He didn't make these videos," said Michael Aronson, a Nassau police department spokesman.

A New York State investigator who is part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force first learned of Cicero's sharing child pornography in cyberspace and alerted Nassau County Police Det. John McGee of the Crimes Against Property Squad, which is also in charge of investigating Internet crimes, according to officials.

Nassau police searched Cicero's house several days ago and took his computer. During the search, police said they found nine vials containing a controlled substance, which they believe could be steroids. Cicero wasn't home at the time.

Cicero faces eight counts of promoting a sexual performance of a child and 19 counts of possession of sexual performance of a child.

Thomas Cicero worked for the NYPD from July 2001, until October 2002, when he resigned, according to a department spokesman.

The spokesman said he didn't know where Cicero worked or why he resigned.