SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 30 – A thirty year old man accused by the government of distributing pornographic images of infants and bragging that he was grooming an 11 year old boy is being freed on bond to his mother's house in New Jersey, it was decided late on May 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York's Magistrates Court with Inner City Press the only media present. See also Patreon.
Bryan Pivnick was brought in foot shackles before SDNY Magistrate Judge James L. Cott after 6 pm. Assistant US Attorney Thomas Wright, who later confirmed the spelling of Pivnick's name to Inner City Press, argued for detention.
He described Telegram messages on February 10, 2019 in which Pivnick said he was "getting close to the 11 y/o bro" of his boyfriend. Thesame 11 year old was found in Pivnick's apartment when he was arrested.
Pivnick's Federal Defenders lawyer Philip Weinstein protested that the 11 year old is the son of Pivnick's boyfriend and that the photos were not naked - they were at a museum. "The SPY museum," Pivnick audibly said.
Pivnick's mother and step-father were in the gallery. When Pivnick was brought in his mother cried and left courtroom. Later she spoke up to tell Judge Cott that her home in New Jersey has "Raid security" which can film whomever approaches it.
Judge Cott said he would take a recess to decide. But before that happened, none other than the mother of the 11 year told, a Ms. Chapman, spoke up from the gallery. She said that while she will never again allow her son to see Pivnick, they had shared a dog together, that she had paid for.
She objected to AUSA Wright saying Pivnick doesn't have steady work, noting that he works 11 hours a day on a musical, albeit not for money.
While Cott and his Deputy Mr. Tan never read out the index number of the case, online research by Inner City Press finds a Bryan Pivnick who is described in Marymount Manhattan Magazine in 2010-11: "Early this spring semester, Bryan Pivnick ’11 brought the beginnings of a song to class. He wasn’t sure where he was going with it, but wanted to get some feedback to help guide him. Students reacted with confusion to his phrasing and were unsatisfied with his rhyme schemes. In a previous class, Pivnick, a theatre arts major, had received favorable responses from the class when he shared a song from a separate project, a developing musical in which he had provided the class with clear characters and context for the direction those songs were taking."
Bryan Pivnick in Harrison, New Jersey (another address is in Freehold, NJ) alsoregistered with GoDaddy a website named TheDramatistsLab.org. It is not live. An address on the Upper West Side is also listed but no longer seems relevant for this format. (But see Patreon, here.)
Cott emerged and said that, unlike a homeless man less than an hour later whom he remanded to the MCC for online threats to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, of whom Pre Trial Services noted "ties to Nigeria," Pivnick could be freed. His mother will put up her home and agree to have her computer and other electronics password protected. Pivnick is not to see the boyfriend, who is now a witness. In the back of the Mag Court, Ms. Chapman was discussing what was on Pivnick's phone. Then the homeless man was remanded, his bond application denied.
