And Yet Again

L.I. Priest Arrested On Child Porn Charges

The Rev. Thomas G. Saloy, 45, A Roman Catholic priest at the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Roosevelt, was arrested on possessing child pornography Friday following an investigation that commenced more than a year ago when the priest's name appeared in an unrelated case in Wisconsin.

Investigators obtained a warrant and on Nov. 9, they searched the rectory of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church. Prosecutors said Saloy acknowledged that he had visited AOL chat rooms and that he had requested and received sexually explicit images of teenagers 15 to 16 years old.
He also said that he occasionally received images of very young children, which he deleted, according to prosecutors.

A forensic search of computer equipment belonging to Saloy allegedly found more than 1,300 images and videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday, FBI agents who seized computer equipment in September 2005 found an e-mail from Saloy on a computer hard drive, allegedly depicting sexually explicit images of boys.

In September 2006, an undercover detective posing as a 16-year-old boy allegedly was contacted by Saloy in an America Online chat room, according to the complaint. During a sexually related conversation, Saloy requested a child pornography image. He allegedly repeated the request a month later.

His attorney said the priest eventually would be transferred to a program in Maryland that treats sex offenders. Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Bode and defense attorney Peter Rubin assured the judge that Saloy would be locked inside a secure part of the hospital.

They said Saloy was scheduled to be transferred on Nov. 27 to St. Luke's Institute in Silver Spring, Md., which runs a program for sex offenders. Orenstein again received assurances that Saloy would not be released from that facility without the court's approval.

The diocese, which has 1.5 million Catholics, was one of the centers of the priest abuse scandal in the United States. A grand jury in 2003 found dozens of priests allegedly abusing children across Long Island, but no indictments were handed down because the statutes of limitations had expired long ago.