Roy Naim
An immigration advocate profiled in a Time cover story has
been arrested on child pornography charges.
Self-fashioned immigration activist Roy Naim, 29, downloaded
three child pornography videos and is currently in federal custody after being
denied bail Wednesday, officials said.
The accused pervert has volunteered at a
camp for special needs children in the past, a position he appears to have left
in 2010
One of the subjects of a 2012 Time story on 35 undocumented
illegal immigrants, Mr Naim pleaded not guilty to a single count of receiving
child pornography.
The Israeli national was deemed a flight risk and denied
bail.
US Attorney Saritha Komatireddy argued Mr Naim should be
denied bail because of the risk he posed to the community as an accused
pedophile who has worked in the past with children, has no job and isn’t a
citizen, according to CNN.
Attorney Richard Finkel unsuccessfully countered that Mr
Naim spends most of his time volunteering and helping others, CNN reported.
Additionally, Mr Finkel noted that the Naim family, with very little money and
no property, doesn’t have the means to help Roy Naim flee.
Without assets for collateral, the judge explained, she had
no choice but to deny bail, said CNN.
Mr Naim is currently sitting in jail after an alleged child
pornography distributor was arrested recently in Louisiana, officials said. One
of the receivers of that child pornography turned out to be the ‘Jewish Face of
the Immigration Reform Struggle,’ according to an indictment cited by multiple
media outlets.
The accused pedophile received that nickname from the JewishDaily Forward.
Officials said Mr Naim voluntarily copped to years of
downloading and viewing child pornography.
Investigators uncovered videos of
children performing sexual acts on his laptop and immediately arrested him,
according to the indictment.
An eerie tweet only two days before his arraignment read
'Giving it up,' but it is not clear if that resignation was because he knew
investigators were closing in on him.
Mr Naim made a name for himself by staging public rallies
and lobbying Congress to enact immigration reform. His activism was born out of
frustration from trying to become an American citizen since his family
immigrated to the US when he was three-years-old.
‘He wants to be an American citizen,’ Richard Finkel, Mr
Naim’s attorney, told the New York Daily News.
Mr Naim lists multiple volunteer positions at Camp Simcha
between 2003 and 2008 on his Facebook page, but is referred to as a division
head in a post on the camp’s Facebook page.
Camp Simcha is famous for being attended by a young,
disabled Israeli girl whom a plane turned around to retrieve after leaving her
at the gate for lack of identification.
Attempts to reach camp administration for comment were
unsuccessful.
If convicted, Mr Naim faces five to 20 years in prison. It
is not clear if he would also face a possible
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