SEPTA police officer who watched child porn on duty pleads guilty
Brian Zenszer, 44, of Warminster, admitted to using the messaging app Kik to solicit and view dozens of files with child pornography.
A SEPTA police officer who watched and shared child pornography, sometimes while on duty, pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing and distributing child pornography.
Brian Zenszer, 44, of Warminster, admitted in federal court that he used the messaging app Kik to solicit and view dozens of files with child pornography, including images of prepubescent children being sexually abused.
Zenszer, who was fired after the criminal charges were filed in November, now faces as many as 40 years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July.
Zenszer, dressed in an olive green jumpsuit, spoke only to respond to questions from U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen McCartney declined to comment after the hearing. Zenszer’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Zenszer was a SEPTA police officer for 17 years, assigned to foot patrols throughout the transit system, primarily along the Broad Street and Market-Frankford Lines.
The investigation was started by tips submitted to Kik that two accounts associated with the former transit officer had been sharing child pornography.
After executing a search warrant for the accounts, federal investigators found 24 files containing child pornography on an account that Zenszer used to view and share images and to communicate with others online, sometimes requesting videos of minors being sexually abused, federal prosecutors said.
After that account was shut down by Kik, Zenszer opened another account, where investigators found 16 pornographic images and videos featuring children, prosecutors said.
Zenszer used the Kik app to speak to others about videos of child sexual abuse, sometimes requesting videos.