A former Long Island teacher, accused of misconduct, faced new child pornography charges months after New Jersey police alleged he pretended to be a minor to solicit explicit photos from children.
Ryan McCaffery, 37, appeared in a Suffolk County courtroom Monday for arraignment on numerous serious sex crime charges, including promoting a sexual performance of a child under 17 and possessing child pornography, according to court records.
Reports from Newsday indicate the Ridge resident allegedly requested nude photos from children under 14 on Snapchat and participated in sexual acts during these inappropriate exchanges.
The chats unfolded in December, police said.
McCaffery, a former social studies teacher and coach at Riverhead High School, had been arrested during February in a separate, but connected Bergen County, New Jersey case.
Garden State cops said McCaffery had requested nude photos from two kids under the age of 13 during explicit online chats in 2022.
Those accusations arose from a New York State Police cyber crime investigation that led to a Jan. 17 raid on McCaffery’s home, police said.
McCaffery sat for a joint interview with state and Bergen County police that led to the New Jersey charges, cops said.
He resigned from Riverhead schools shortly before those charges dropped — and school officials were steadfast they didn’t involve local kids.
Likewise, the kids allegedly victimized in the new case aren’t Riverhead students, Newsday reported.
McCaffery pleaded not guilty to the 11 counts leveled by Suffolk County prosecutors and a judge set bail with non-monetary conditions, records show.
He’s next due to appear in New Jersey court on Thursday, and June 16 in Long Island.
