Greenport official charged with possession of child pornography, officials say

A Greenport official who had graphic images of toddlers and young girls on his home computers, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York, was charged with possession of child pornography Wednesday.

A federal judge set bail for David Corwin, 72, a member of Greenport’s Zoning Board of Appeals and a former village trustee, at $300,000 during a telephone arraignment Wednesday afternoon.

Corwin had served on the Greenport Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1991. He was appointed to the board in 2007 but defeated in a 2008 election. Greenport Mayor George Hubbard and Village Clerk Sylvia Pirillo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Corwin allowed an FBI agent and a Suffolk police detective serving on the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force to search six computers during a March 18 visit to his Greenport home, according to a criminal complaint prepared by the Suffolk detective.

Corwin invited the agents into his home opened a "dark web" browser on one laptop that had live chatting capabilities which Corwin called "pedo chat," according to the complaint. Other computers included sexually explicit images of toddlers and young girls.

One of the computers, according to the complaint, was open to the Bureau of Prisons website, which Corwin was using to search for a convicted sex offender. Corwin told the investigators that the sex offender, who the Suffolk officer said in the complaint, had been sentenced to 840 months in prison after admitting that he had photographed his own daughter to trade for other child porn is "infamous in my world."

The FBI returned with a search warrant to Corwin’s home early Wednesday. Corwin’s Federal Defenders attorney, Randi Chavis of Central Islip, declined comment after Wednesday's arraignment.