Man faces over 70 child porn charges after cops find hidden memory card; Also accused of sexually assaulting child
Neil Steven Greenberg was arrested Monday and is being held in the Broward County Jail on bonds totaling nearly $1.3 million, records show.
At Greenberg’s first court appearance Tuesday, defense attorney Matthew Glassman argued his client had no criminal past, was being charged excessively and should be released on a reasonable bond amount.
“He suffers from multiple health ailments, he has absolutely no prior arrests,” Glassman said. “I have issues with the number of charges.”
The Internet Crimes Against Children task force started investigating Greenberg after receiving a tip from the U.S. Marshals Service about a possible human trafficking case involving a 17-year-old girl who had run away from a group home, investigators said.
When detectives searched Greenberg’s home in the 2300 block of Northwest 139th Avenue, they said they found a computer memory card concealed under a felt cloth that lined the bottom of a locked safe in a master bedroom.
The card contained 36 videos dating back to 2012 that showed Greenberg having unlawful sex with girls as young as 14 years of age.
The card also had several folders, one of which was labeled “For Evidentiary Purposes ONLY” with a Notepad document labeled “Read_this” that was dated Sept. 14, 2013, investigators said.
The document was allegedly written by Greenberg and it read, in part, “I have never knowingly downloaded or sought to acquire or view ANY sexually explicit material that contained any underage girl,” detectives said.
It also stated Greenberg wrote the document for its “evidentiary value” and that he would “gladly take a polygraph” test to prove he was telling the truth, records showed.
“[Prosecutors] have to prove knowledge, that [Greenberg] knew the victims were under the age of 18 at that time,” his attorney said in court.
Greenberg is a self-employed manager of a local website that is an alleged front for prostitution, detectives said.
Detectives also obtained transcripts of conversations on Facebook Messenger between Greenberg and some underage girls discussing payment and scheduling sex sessions, according to the arrest records.
Investigators said they believe there may be other girls who were involved with Greenberg and they are asking anyone who thinks they were victimized to contact Detective Michael Joo at 954-888-5327.
Anonymous tips can always be given to Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.
