An Emmy and Grammy Award-winning composer who has written songs for PBS's Sesame Street as well as the Disney Channel was arrested for child pornography Monday.
The Charleston Post and Courier shockingly reported Tuesday:
[Fernando] Rivas' resume lists ties to Gloria Estefan, Cyndi Lauper, Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, Disney hired him to compose the music for "Handy Manny," a children's animated TV program about a bilingual handyman and his talking tools.
The accusations against him stem from someone else's arrest in New Jersey on charges of possession of child pornography, according to a North Charleston police report. Local officers helped FBI agents with a search warrant of Rivas' home on Falling Embers Lane on April 19.
There, according to court records, investigators found photographs of a 4-year-old girl naked and "restrained in handcuffs and other bondage-type devices." Records from that search say investigators read Rivas his rights and that he admitted to taking the photographs and using handcuffs to restrain the girl.
The records say Rivas also admitted to sending the pictures to two other people by email.
Adding insult to injury, New York's Daily News reported Tuesday Rivas won a Grammy in 1998 for Best Children's Album. He's also won two Emmys.
What the heck is going on in America?
(H/T Matthew Balan)
