Michael Hopkins, a day-care monitor who was employed at an...

Michael Hopkins, a day-care monitor who was employed at an after-school program at Sunquam Elementary School in Melville, was arrested Friday on child-pornography charges. (Feb. 5, 2010) Credit: Facebook.com

A day care monitor for an after-school program at Sunquam Elementary School in Melville was arrested early Friday on child pornography charges, federal officials said.

Michael Hopkins, 23, of Mineola, admitted that he had been viewing and trading in child pornography for eight years, according to an arrest warrant filed by the FBI agent in federal court in Central Islip.

The warrant said Hopkins admitted accessing the images from his home computer.

Hopkins lives with his parents; his mother, Susan, said in court at a bail hearing that she baby-sits for children in the home.

But there was no suggestion in the affidavit or from federal prosecutors that any of the children in the pornographic pictures were from the after-school program or from his mother's baby-sitting.

Hopkins was fired Monday at about the same time he called in to say he was quitting because his mother, he said, was ill, Half Hollow Hills School District superintendent Sheldon Kornilow said.

Under the screen name Mike23NY, Hopkins obtained images of girls ages 6 to 8 engaged in sexual and sadomasochistic activities, the warrant said.

A search of Hopkins' home computer showed it contained "numerous images and videos of apparent child pornography depicting children as young as infants," the warrant said.

Kornilow said Hopkins did not work for the school system, but for the Regional Enrichment Agency of Commack and Half Hollow Hills, a separate agency that runs the after-school program.

He and Roseann Miceli, the director of REACH, said they were very upset about the situation, but said Hopkins, who monitored children in kindergarten through fifth grade, worked at all times with several adults in the same room. Miceli said Hopkins was hired after a screening by state agencies to ensure that he did not have a criminal record or problematic history. The screening process included fingerprints, he said.

Earlier in the day, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Campos asked that Hopkins be held without bail because he was a flight risk and a danger to the community. But U.S. Magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson released Hopkins on $300,000, secured by his parents' home, pending future hearings, saying that "as disturbing as the charges" were, there is "no allegation that the defendant molested or even attempted to molest a child."

Tomlinson imposed other bail conditions, including banning his mother from working as a baby-sitter in the home, barring Hopkins from leaving home except for medical reasons or court appearances, monitoring by an electronic ankle bracelet, forbidding children younger than 18 from entering the home, and barring him from employment or college attendance.

A neighbor of the Hopkins' Jean Reyesen, said that Hopkin's mother runs what amounted to a very active day-care where up to six or seven children at a time would spend the day there.

Sources close to the Hopkins family said that, while the mother ran a licensed day care center from the home years ago, she currently has been baby-sitting for one or two children. At the school, most parents had not heard of Hopkins' arrest.Picking up her 6-year-old son at 4:45 p.m., Virginia Castro was in shock over the news.

"I'm speechless," said Castro, of Wheatley Heights, who added her son knows Hopkins from going to the REACH program. He wrote him a Christmas card and the family gave him a holiday gift last year. She said her son never said anything about him. "Now I'm like, you know, I don't know . . . he's only 6 years old." Neither Hopkins nor his parents would comment. If convicted of the charges, Hopkins would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison.

With Sumathi Reddy

DATABASE: Click here to search for sex offenders in your town

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