Jace Alexander is under arrest, with police in New York accusing the Law & Order director of possessing and sharing files of child pornography.
The charges against Alexander were announced Wednesday by Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, with authorities claiming that Alexander downloaded child pornography from an address within the county, Variety reported.
Investigators tracked that address to Alexander’s home, and with a search warrant they found digital files of children less than 16 years of age in child pornography, police claim.
The New York Post shared some detail of the alleged videos he downloaded and shared:
“Alexander, 50, of Dobbs Ferry, the only son of actress Jane Alexander, is accused of promoting the video – depicting a girl about 12 or 13 years old – by making it available for viewing in late June on the Torrent network, according to a criminal complaint.”
“He also is accused of having a video file depicting a 6- to 8-year-old girl performing a sexual act on herself, according to Investigator Andrew Garcia of the DA’s High Technology Crime Bureau.”
Alexander is best known for directing more than 30 episodes of Law & Order , but has also worked on a number of other shows including Rescue Me , The Practice , and most recently the DirecTV comedy Coop.
He also has an important place within the industry, being elected second vice-president of the Directors Guild of America last month.
News of Alexander’s arrest came after another child porn arrest made headlines. In California, police arrested 54-year-old Thomas Bettis and accused him of sending more than 600 images of child pornography via the internet. The case was broken by the FBI’s Project Safe Childhood, a 2006 Department of Justice effort to fight sexual exploitation and abuse of children .
“Collecting and trading child pornography is a crime perpetrated by individuals who steal children’s innocence and share the obscene content with others who often, as is the case with Thomas Bettis, also have sexually abused children.”
Bettis pleaded guilty earlier this year.
The world of television has also been rocked by child abuse scandals. This summer TLC announced that the popular 19 Kids and Counting would be canceled after the fallout from eldest son Josh Duggar’s child abuse allegations.
Jace Alexander is accused of one count of promoting a sexual performance by a child and another count of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child. He faces up to seven years in state prison if convicted, and is currently being held on $10,000 bail.
[Picture by Theo Wargo /Getty Images]
