Tenafly Teacher Faces Child Porn Charge: Authorities

TENAFLY, NJ – A fifth grade teacher in Tenafly faces charges after authorities say he had several dozen images of child pornography in an online cloud storage account.

Pasquale Bernaldo-Antonelli, a longtime teacher at Ralph S. Maugham Elementary School, was arrested Thursday following a months-long investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Cyber Crimes Unit, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.

Detectives discovered that Bernaldo-Antonelli used the internet to view, download and possess 60 digital files depicting nude or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children, the prosecutor said.

The 42-year-old Garfield resident was charged with one count of possession of child pornography in an amount greater than 100 files, the prosecutor said.

NJ.com reported that authorities began investigating the married schoolteacher after receiving tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding the online account.

Bernaldo-Antonelli has been a teacher for 12 years, including the past 7 at Maugham School, according to the school’s website. He is certified as an elementary school teacher and a social studies teacher for K-12.