"ANOTHER PUBLIC FIRE OFFICIAL COMMITS CRIMES"

May 30, 2003

Fire Commissioner Charged in Sexual Predator Sting

   By Deborah Medenbach
   Times Herald-Record
   dmedenbach@th-record.com
   
   Milton – A fire commissioner was arrested Wednesday and charged in an Internet sting targeted at sexual predators seeking minors in chat rooms.
 

   Charles Diorio, 57, is accused of having explicit sexual chats from May 7 until Tuesday with a boy he believed to be 14 years old. Authorities said when Diorio made arrangements to meet the boy in White Plains, he discovered the teen was all grown up and carried a badge.
 

   The Westchester district attorney's office's High Technology Bureau has run similar sting operations since 1999, netting 72 arrests with 63 convictions.
 

   Diorio, an ex-Marine and former chairman of Marlborough's Democratic Committee, is married with two grown children. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Marlborough Town Board in 1995 and has been with the Milton Fire Department all his adult life.
 

   Diorio was charged with first-degree attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors, a felony. If convicted, Diorio faces four years in prison. He was arraigned in White Plains and released from the Westchester County Jail on $10,000 bail yesterday.

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