A Calverton man facing federal child pornography charges pleaded not guilty today in U.S. District Court in Central Islip and was held without bail pending his next court appearance.
Taylor Pick, 35, is charged in a federal indictment with three counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Child, a federal felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The indictment charged three other people: Jonathan Berretta of Centereach, Maureen Serra of Lake Ronkonkoma and Benjamin Downs of Massachusetts, who according to prosecutors conspired with Pick to “induce, entice and coerce” four minors “to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images and video they knew would enter interstate commerce by U.S Mail and the Internet.
Berretta, Serra and Downs also entered pleas of not guilty today.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justina Geraci told the judge that the government is in the early stages of plea negotiations with “some of the defendants.”
The four defendants are next scheduled to appear in court on May 14.
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