Garden City Scout Leader Charged With Possessing and Promoting Child Porn

A Garden City Boy Scout leader has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies for possessing images of child pornography and making those images available to others via the Internet, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

Edward Orenchuk, III, 23, was arrested by DA investigators Wednesday morning.

During August and September 2012, DA investigators witnessed Orenchuk making multiple images of child pornography available over the Internet for download by other people, Rice said. Investigators tracked the source of those images to a Wheeler Avenue residence in E. Garden City, according to the district attorney's office.

Rice said Orenchuk implicated himself during the execution of a search warrant at that home this morning, indicating that he had hundreds of images on his personal computer. The images contain children as young as five years old, Rice said.

“This defendant’s regular contact with children in a position of authority makes these charges that much more disturbing,” Rice said. “My office is committed to aggressively investigating and prosecuting those who traffic in this horrific material.”

Orenchuk currently works as a page at the Garden City Public Library. An Eagle Scout, Orenchuk also serves as an assistant scout master with Boy Scout Troop #243 in Garden City, according to a report released Wednesday by the district attorney's office.

Investigators charged Orenchuk with three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child as a sexually motivated felony and three counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child.

He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.