Former Cantor Arrested on Child Porn Charges
A former cantor at a Halifax, Nova Scotia, synagogue has been arrested on charges of distributing child pornography, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said Monday.
Stuart Friedman, 43, was accused in a federal indictment of sending an undercover FBI agent in Long Beach computer disks that showed young boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Authorities said Friedman contacted the agent through the Internet in 1996.
Halifax police searched his home in January 1997 and arrested him on charges of possessing child pornography. Although he was employed at the synagogue at the time, Canadian authorities said there was no evidence that Friedman was sexually involved with children there.
Convicted on the Canadian charges, Friedman paid a $2,000 fine and was deported to the United States, where he took up residence in Baltimore. He was arrested there on a Los Angeles federal grand jury indictment issued Friday.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum 15 years in prison.
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