Philly Restaurateur Arrested and Charged in Horrifying Child Porn Scheme

A successful Philly restaurateur may be adding a particularly unsavory hobby to his resume: Child pornography. According to Philly.com, 41-year-old Alex Capasso, the man at the helm of Philadelphia's Crow & the Pitcher and New Jersey's now-shuttered Blackbird Dining Establishment, has been arrested and charged with alleged involvement in a federal child pornography investigation. He was arrested in his New Jersey home on Monday, July 20 after being caught sending sexual photos of a 5-year-old girl said to be an ex's niece to an undercover agent. To make matters worse, Capasso admitted to the agent that he sexually abused the girl several times and even discussed his plans to sexually abuse his soon-to-be-born daughter.

After his arrest, Capasso allegedly admitted to owning the images, but quickly denied knowing the girl and claimed to have obtained the photos from the internet. However, his story became even more questionable when agents found non-sexual photographs of the same girl at family outings and recitals in his possession. Should he be convicted of distributing child pornography, prosecutors say the count carries a mandatory five-year sentence.

Capasso was first contacted by the undercover agent after he was found on an internet site visited by those who have a sexual interest in young children. When the agent claimed to have a 9-year-old daughter he was offering up for sex, Capasso responded that he was interested and willing to drive to Washington to meet her. He explained his intentions, "NO LIMITS. NOTHING TOO NASTY. Yes, even the illegal stuff."

This news comes just after Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle's home was recently raided in connection with a business partner's child porn scandal, which Fogle was eventually named a suspect in, resulting in the end of his relationship with Subway and his removal from the cast of Sharknado 3. More recently, a restaurant manager in New Jersey was just arrested last week for hiding a recording device in a Unisex bathroom that was also used by children.