Jorge Roman, a former volunteer soccer coach at the University and a longtime youth soccer coach in the Princeton area, has been charged with possessing images of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey announced Thursday.
Roman, 48, was charged following an investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service that ended with a search of his residence on Thursday. At the time of his arrest he was a volunteer soccer coach at Rider University and ledhis own soccer coaching company, which caters to school-aged students.
According to acopy of the complaint, Roman purchased approximately 79 films between 2006 and 2011 from a single movie production company. The films feature prepubescent boys engaging in activities including “wrestling and showering, while completely or partially naked.”
All of the orders were placed under his name and were worth over $2,200 in total.
Roman could not be reached for comment. A phone number listed on whitepages.com under his name was out of service on Friday afternoon.
While the name of the film company has not been revealed, the company allegedly marketed its products as “naturist films from around the world.” In addition, a summary of the investigation listed the titles of four films produced by the company.
A film company, Azov Films, produced movies with all four titles listed in the investigation summary and marketed themselves in the same way.
“We are Azov Films. Featuring coming-of-age and naturist films from around the world. azovfilms.com is your source for original naturist films from Ukraine plus rare and new coming-of-age DVD releases with pictures and trailers and news,” a 2011 version of its website read. The website is currently down. The company is based in Canada and the United States.
Other purchasers of Azov films have previously beencharged with viewingchild pornography.
Roman’spersonal websitestates that he was an assistant soccer coach at the University under then-head coach Bob Bradley ’80 and that he was the director of training for the Princeton Soccer Association from September 1993 until June 2001. Craig Sachson, the University’s assistant director of athletics, confirmed that Roman served as a volunteer assistant coach in 1995 but declined to comment further.
In 1999, Roman organized a summer soccer camp in Princetonthat included several University coaches, including University men’s soccer head coach Jim Barlow and women’s head soccer coach Julie Shackford.
His website includes a large number of endorsements including comments by Barlow and Shackford. Both coaches deferred comment to Sachson when contacted about the accusations against Roman.
Roman could face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Sports Editor Stephen Wood contributed reporting.
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