Licensed Social Worker Pleads Guilty to Horrific Child Pornography Charges

In a case that has shocked and outraged the community, Renee Hoberman, also known as "Rina," a licensed social worker, pleaded guilty in federal court in Central Islip today to charges of receipt and distribution of child pornography. The proceedings took place before United States District Judge Joanna Seybert.

Hoberman faces a minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced.

United States Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. for the Eastern District of New York, along with Michael Alfonso, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, New York (HSI), and Patrick Ryder, Commissioner, Nassau County Police Department, announced the guilty plea.

United States Attorney Nocella condemned Hoberman's actions, stating, “The defendant, a licensed social worker, admitted to distributing extremely vile and unthinkable videos depicting the horrific sexual abuse of babies. The videos the defendant distributed and sought for her own perverse pleasure showed the most innocent members of our society being restrained and violently raped.” Nocella emphasized that such crimes "should outrage and offend every decent member of our society," vowing relentless pursuit of predators and a commitment to holding those who harm children accountable.

According to court filings and statements made during the plea proceeding, Hoberman confessed to using encrypted social media messaging applications to upload, receive, and trade digital videos and images of minors engaged in sexually explicit acts. This included several videos of infants, as young as six months to one year old, being physically restrained and raped by an adult male while the infants cried and frantically screamed.

Beyond distributing these horrific materials, Hoberman also engaged in online "chats" discussing child sexual molestation. In these disturbing conversations, she posed as a father of several minor children, claiming to have sexually abused them and punished them by stripping them naked and spanking them while other children watched. She even invited another user to visit her "family" in New York to sexually abuse the children. Hoberman further described sexually abusing "her" children and their friends, then uploaded and sent two videos of child sexual abuse material, falsely claiming they depicted her own children.

Adding another layer of horror to this case, public records and court documents reveal that Hoberman was working as a therapist with an organization in Melville, New York, serving children up to the age of 17, at the same time she was distributing this abhorrent child sexual abuse material online.