FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A 41-year-old man with a Justice League tattoo admitted to receiving images on a messaging app that depicted the sexual abuse of children as young as six, according to police.
Employees of Kik Messenger notified The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a private nonprofit organization, about the criminal activity, records show.
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The nonprofit then notified The South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force about the need to investigate the specific Kik Messenger account activity.
“The account user transmitted more than 70 files, which are considered child pornography,” Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Rausch wrote in his Aug. 29 arrest report.
Detectives identified the user as Matthew Zalenzky, a North Lauderdale resident born in Oceanside, New York. He lived in a community about a block away from Pinewood Elementary School.
“The files generally depict female children who are 6-10 engaged in sexual acts with adults,” Rausch wrote in his report about what a detective reported finding in Zalenzky’s iPhone.
Detectives reported he was driving in the area at about 6:20 a.m., on Aug. 29, and they then decided to conduct a traffic stop and detain him for questioning. Zalensky allegedly confessed.
“He received child pornography from other Kik users. He said that he deleted the child pornography because he knew it was wrong,” Rausch wrote in his report.
Prosecutors filed the case against Zalenzky on Aug. 30 and his arraignment was set for 8:30 a.m., on Oct. 1, with Broward County Circuit Judge Timothy L. Bailey.
Zalenzky was facing 11 charges: 10 counts of possession of child pornography, a second-degree felony, and one count of computer pornography, a third-degree felony. His bond was $110,000 and he was at the Paul Rein Detention Facility on Thursday in Pompano Beach.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.