GUILDERLAND — A Wynantskill elementary school music teacher has been arrested by Guilderland Police for possessing printed photos of child pornography.

One home computer and two school computers have been seized by authorities.
Mark S. Sardella, of 12 Norman Ave., Guilderland, was arrested at his home last Saturday night, after police say he downloaded "numerous photos of young children involved in sexual acts," on his home computer, according to Guilderland Deputy Police Chief Carol Lawlor.
Sardella, who is married and has children, is charged with "possessing a sexual performance by a child", a class E felony, with more charges pending, says Lawlor.
"Every picture can be a separate charge. Right now he is being charged with one picture," said Lawlor.
"Things are going as well as can be expected, but it is a difficult time," said Wynantskill superintendent, Christine Hamill.

The Wynantskill school sent home letters to parents last Monday and Tuesday, informing them on how the school is handling the situation and trying to keep the community informed on what is known at this time. Hamill said teachers and school officials are going into classrooms to answer questions students may have.

There is nothing to indicate anything inappropriate has occurred between Sardella and Wynantskill students, according to Hamill.

Sardella was arraigned by Guilderland Judge Denise Randall and remanded in Albany County jail without bail. He will be back in Guilderland court on Thursday night before going to Albany County Court.

Catching criminals

John Tashjian, a Guilderland Police investigator told The Enterprise yesterday that Sardella is going to be charged with 10 more felony counts for possessing pictures of child pornography in town court on Thursday night.
When asked how many pictures were found in Sardella’s possession, Tashjian responded, "Quite a few." The pictures depicted both male and female children in sexual acts and they were all downloaded from the Internet, said Tashjian.

Lawlor said there were up to 50 printed pictures of child pornography found at Sardella’s home and that there could be up to 2,000 pictures on his home computer.
Another Guilderland officer, Brian Forte, is part of a Federal Bureau of Investigation’s joint task force called "Innocent Images." The goal of this task force is to remove distributors and possessors of child pornography, said Forte.

There are only 28 Innocent Image task forces around the nation, and one is based in Albany with two FBI investigators leading the organization. Members from the Albany, Colonie, Guilderland, Bethlehem, and Waterford police departments are also apart of the joint task force.
Forte said there is a significant correlation between the use of child pornography and pedophilia, saying there can be an "escalation scale" between child pornography and sexually-related child abuse.

There is nothing to indicate this is case with Sardella, said Forte, and that no one has come forward with sexual abuse allegations against Sardella.

The Innocent Images task force uses undercover officers to infiltrate chat rooms and peer-to-peer networks, pretending they are minors in order to catch sexual predators on the Internet. They talk on-line with sexual predators and eventually attempt to meet them in person in order to make an arrest.

Forte gave an example of a task force arrest from last year: An Albany man was arrested for attempting to buy a child on the Internet, he said. Authorities arranged for the purchase, saying they were bringing the child up from New York City. When the man arrived, police moved in and arrested him.
Forte described the task force as "highly successful," citing a 95’ to 98-percent conviction rate.
"They are becoming more and more known to us," said Tashjian about the number of child pornography cases in the area. He continued, saying cases like this are not very prevalent, but that Guilderland Police are seeing an increasing amount of them.

If child pornography is downloaded from another country, then police have no jurisdiction to pursue the distributor, says Forte. They can pursue only the people who possess it. If a website can be determined to be within United States borders then the case will be sent to that district, where authorities can go after the distributor for prosecution, said Forte.
In these types of cases computers are confiscated by police and the hard drives, or brains of the computer, are "mirrored." From the hard drives, police can determine which websites were visited and where content sent over the Internet comes from, according to Forte.

The FBI has joined in investigating the Sardella case, Forte said.