The Child Predator With a Plunder-Provided Pension

Officer Pervy

Waltham, Massachusetts resident Paul Manganelli is a confessed child pornography collector. Investigators claimed that he was part of “an international web of people trading child pornography over the internet” for a fifteen-month period beginning in late 2011. He was arrested without being the target of a multi-agency military-style raid of the kind recently mounted to bring in a child porn suspect in Livingston, Illinois.

In online conversations Manganelli “discussed his sexual interest in children and asked others how to groom a child to engage in sexual activity with him”; one of his specific targets was an 11-year-old girl with whom he carried out a lengthy cyber-correspondence. It’s quite likely that young girl was not the unique object of his interests, given that Manganelli’s occupation routinely brought him into contact with children who were taught to regard him as trustworthy: For twenty years he was a patrol officer with the Waltham Police Department. He also ran a side business as a DJ for birthday parties and similar events for youngsters.

In 2013, Manganelli was paid $92,435. After being arrested in March of that year, he remained on the force until October. Because he finished twenty years on the force, Manganelli is entitled to his full pension.

Ordinarily, a Massachusetts resident convicted of possessing child pornography would face sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The prosecution treated this offender with unwonted leniency, asking for 70 months; Judge F. Dennis Saylor regarded that sentence as too harsh, imposing a five-year term and waiving the fine outright. Manganelli has ample resources to pay the fine: In 2011, he won $1 million in the state lottery, and at present there is no statute that would prevent him from receiving his annual $100,000 payout.

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1:00 am on July 24, 2014