Rockland DA charges Long Island lawyer after investigator posed as 14-year-old girl
Mike RandallRAMAPO − An attorney from Long Island has been accused of attempting to give indecent material to a minor girl.
Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh announced Thursday that the attorney was arrested during an investigation by his office into predators using online platforms to prey on minors.
Walsh said that from May 22 to 31, an undercover investigator with his office posing as a minor engaged in a series of text conversations with the defendant, Daniel Waxman, 55, of Cedarhurst. Walsh said the undercover investigator advised Waxman on multiple occasions that she was a 14-year-old girl.
Walsh said Waxman's texts to the undercover investigator became increasingly sexual, and culminated with the defendant arranging to meet the minor to engage in sexual conduct.
On Wednesday, detectives from Walsh's office, in coordination with the Town of Ramapo Police Department, took Waxman into custody after he arrived in Rockland County to meet with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
Waxman was charged with attempted first-degree dissemination of indecent material to minors, a felony.
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Waxman was arraigned before Ramapo Town Justice Djinsad Desir. Bail was set at $150,000 cash or $250,000 bond and his next court appearance is scheduled for June 6.
Waxman also was required to surrender his passports, and must refrain from communicating with minors by electronic means.
The name of Waxman's attorney was not immediately available.
"The exploitation of children is an abhorrent act, one that will not be tolerated in Rockland County," Walsh said in a statement released.
Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record, Poughkeepsie Journal and The Journal News/lohud. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com or on Twitter @mikerandall845.