N.J. teacher & 12 others arrested on online child-porn charges

On the surface, it would seem that James J. Atkinson III and Josh Elwell have nothing in common.

Atkinson, chairman of the fine-arts department at West Deptford High School and orchestra director for a large church in Gloucester County, is an accomplished musician and a married father of three. According to his bio, when Atkinson's not working, he enjoys photography and golf.

Elwell, a 23-year-old Swedesboro resident, works at a Target store and claims on his Facebook profile that he's into "girls, music, [and] my caddy," among other things. His favorite movie is "Jackass."

Authorities say both men - along with five other adults and six juveniles arrested in Gloucester County recently - also liked to download pornographic images and videos of children as young as 4 years old on their computers.

"These individuals come from all socioeconomic backgrounds," Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton said yesterday in Woodbury.

The arrests are part of a statewide effort to train local prosecutor's offices how to track down and stop child pornography from being viewed and distributed on the Internet, Attorney General Anne Milgram said.

"Gloucester County has been a leader in this [effort to intervene]," she said.

Dalton said the 13 suspects were not acting together, but had downloaded images and videos well-known to child-pornography investigators.

"Many of the videos have circulated for a long time. They're known by the victims' name," he said.

The children in the videos ranged in age from 4 to 14, Dalton said.

"It was very graphic material," he said.

Dalton said four of the defendants had accounts on the social-networking site MySpace, one had a Facebook account, and another had an account on hi5. Elwell had accounts on MySpace and Facebook.

Elwell wrote in his "about me" section on Facebook: "again no clue why im on here . . . maybe its to reach out to real people. and not porn ads like on that myspace . . . "

Dalton would not say whether any of the suspects used the site to seek out the porn.

Also arrested were Larry Jordan, 53, of Washington Township; William E. Wanderer, 61, of Franklinville; Scott McCord, 19, of Monroe Township; and Luis Castellon-Chavez, 28, and William Shorter, 48, both of Clayton.

All adults were charged with endangering the welfare of a child, either in the second or fourth degree. The juveniles, whose ages were not released, were charged with delinquency.

Atkinson did not return a phone call for comment. According to a statement from the West Deptford school district, Atkinson has been placed on suspension and is barred from entering school property or attending any school function.