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Child porn confession puzzle keeps federal probe of freed Bradenton woman alive

 
Renee Kimberly Gregg was cleared in February.
Renee Kimberly Gregg was cleared in February.
Published May 4, 2015

TAMPA — One day a photograph of a woman and a toddler girl, neither identifiable, appeared in the e-mail account of a Queens, N.Y., police sergeant. The photo depicted intimate conduct that most would find disturbing.

Authorities alleged that the sergeant had solicited women to create such images.

For eight months starting in June, federal prosecutors in Tampa acted on a New York law enforcement theory that the adult in the photo was a Bradenton medical worker who sometimes babysat for a friend and had met the cop online.

A grand jury indicted her on charges of producing and sharing child pornography. Her jail mug became public, and a crime blogger called her a monster.

But investigators would soon conclude that she likely was not the woman in the photo.

In February, a federal judge dismissed charges at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office. The judge criticized a prosecutor for acting so sure of the woman's guilt even as proof was fading.

Why was the prosecutor so confident? Federal authorities say the woman confessed — more than once and to multiple agents.

• • •

The sergeant is Alberto Randazzo, who was federally charged last year with downloading child pornography while already facing New York state counts that he directed its production. He awaits trial, as does a Colorado woman accused of plotting with him to molest a child on Skype.

The Bradenton woman, Renee Kimberly Gregg, now 36, was among his cellphone contacts.

The two met online in late 2012 or early 2013, according to Howard Anderson, who was one of Gregg's public defenders. Randazzo and Gregg chatted for four to five weeks before she broke it off because "things got too weird," Anderson said.

A federal charging document states that Randazzo and Gregg exchanged text messages on the topic of having sexual contact with children and discussed him coming to Florida for such activity. Gregg's public defenders say investigators misinterpreted the comments, which were adult in nature but legal and consensual.

Gregg declined an interview request. The Tampa Bay Times spoke with her attorneys: Anderson, public defender Yvette Gray and Michael Maddux, hired recently to explore a claim for wrongful arrest.

She was arrested in June, after questioning by New York-based Homeland Security Investigations agents, who had taken on a case begun by the New York Police Department.

One of those two HSI agents and a third from Sarasota filed probable cause affidavits in New York and Florida, alleging Gregg had admitted to taking pornographic photographs of her friend's toddler and sending them to Randazzo.

The Sarasota agent, Emir Abreu, wrote that Gregg admitted to the conduct when she was arrested June 12 and had also admitted to it in a previous interview that week with agents. Multiple investigators reported hearing her post-arrest confession.

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Gregg denies confessing on either day, Anderson said. She also denies being shown photos before her arrest, in contrast to official accounts.

"You know what you did," she recalled hearing from an agent when she asked why she was being arrested, Anderson said.

Gregg maintains that she admitted only to having once photographed a baby's diaper rash to show a pediatrician, Anderson said. The mother recalled the incident, he said, but a doctor did not.

• • •

Months passed between her arrest and the arrival of many electronic records from New York to Florida.

Only then did a defense investigator notice a problem with the evidence regarding the image of a woman and small child.

The photo had entered Randazzo's America Online account on Aug. 17, 2011, court records state. Investigators concluded he emailed it to himself after receiving it by text message.

Yet other evidence suggested that Gregg and Randazzo didn't meet online until at least 2012.

"It would be like me confessing I murdered JFK but I wasn't born for another year and a half after JFK was assassinated," Anderson said.

Gregg had an alibi for that 2011 day: She was at work and her friend's baby was in day care, the attorney said.

Gregg showed no interest in taking a plea deal and wanted to fight the charges, he said.

"Her position was, 'I'm not guilty of anything, Mr. Anderson. I'm not pleading to it,' " he said.

By the time gaps in the evidence and the dispute over the confession came to light, the case was on its way to trial.

Anderson felt like he was trying to stop a runaway train.

• • •

U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley, who oversees federal prosecutions in a sprawling swath of Florida, says it would have been a "breach of trust" for his office not to seek a grand jury indictment against Gregg, based on what was known at the time she was charged.

The confession, he notes, was witnessed by at least two agents.

"For reasons unknown to our office," he said, "the defendant falsely confessed to producing child pornography she was shown by investigating agents and transmitting it over the Internet to an acquaintance in New York."

As prosecutor Jennifer Peresie prepared for trial, she learned that evidence from New York didn't add up. She took the rare step of asking a federal judge to dismiss grand jury charges.

The government dropped its contention that Gregg was the woman pictured with the baby — a new suspect had emerged in another state — but wanted the option to refile charges if different photos were linked to Gregg.

Defense attorney Gray called that plan a "fishing expedition."

Peresie disagreed, telling the court of an ongoing review of "extensive electronic evidence connected to the person to whom the defendant confessed to sending naked pictures of the victim, and with whom she discussed sexual activity with children."

• • •

Everything about the case had been extreme: a cop accused of directing child porn, a woman accused of exploiting a toddler, a disputed confession, abandoned indictments and the loss of a potentially damaging photo.

The judge's withering 10-page order of dismissal fit right in.

Without naming Peresie directly, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich accused the prosecutor of indiscretions in the exercise of the office's authority.

The judge described the various ways in which Gregg's life had been made miserable during the case and recalled Peresie's resistance to tipping the government's hand. The defense had endured the last-minute delivery of at least 10,000 pages of files.

Peresie had explained in a court filing that records were turned over promptly as they arrived from New York.

The judge said the case's history left her feeling uneasy.

Still, she gave the prosecution the benefit of the doubt.

She stopped the train, but left the engine running.

• • •

Gregg is no longer charged with a crime.

Nor is she free of scrutiny.

A probe driven by explicit text messages and the disputed confession continues.

"The investigation of Renee Gregg remains open and we aren't able to comment further at this time," said Tammy Spicer, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which includes Homeland Security Investigations.

Google Gregg's name and there's still a crime blogger calling her a monster.

Civil rights attorney Maddux said it will be difficult for her to shed the stigma of her arrest. He likened the situation to a modern-day Scarlet Letter.

"They dug a long time on her and they came up with everything they could come up with," Maddux said.

"It's over and they need to stop. They need to leave her alone."

Contact Patty Ryan at pryan@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3382.