Some Staffers Sacked, As Jewish Community Center Camp Counselor Arraigned On Child Porn Charges

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A suburban Detroit day camp counselor has been arraigned on child pornography charges involving photos taken of young boys, and some camp staff have lost their jobs after complaints of inappropriate conduct last year were not passed on to superiors.

A federal judge in Detroit on Thursday ordered Matthew Kuppe, 21, of West Bloomfield held without bond Thursday.

While his parents looked on in a federal courtroom Kuppe pleaded not guilty to six counts involving child pornography.

Kuppe is charged with production, distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography. He was arrested after photos of naked 5-year-old boys in a locker room were posted on a Russian website. The indictment also claims Kuppe took photos of boys as recently as the last 30 days and that he tried to use the photos in an email to an undercover agent to bargain for additional images.

He was fired by the Jewish Community Center, which operates camps in Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township and Oak Park.

On Thursday, center officials said some supervisors also have lost their jobs after they learned that complaints last year of inappropriate conduct involving a counselor were not passed on to camp management.

"In the summer of 2014, JCC camp supervisory personnel received a communication from a camp counselor which raised inappropriate conduct by the counselor who ultimately was charged with criminal wrongdoing," Jewish Community Center spokesman Michael Layne said in a statement.

"The information reported was not passed on to senior JCC management. Supervisory personnel who did not act on this communication have been terminated. We have shared this information with licensing officials in Lansing and with the West Bloomfield Police Department."

West Bloomfield police also are looking into reports of the earlier complaints and trying to determine if there are other victims, Police Chief Michael Patton told the Detroit Free Press.

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