A Brooklyn sex offender used an encrypted instant messaging app to lure and sexually abuse a Rockland County teenage boy, prosecutors announced Thursday.
According to court documents, Joseph Grunwald, 31, began communicating with the 14-year-old boy via telegram in April.
Telegram guarantees anonymity and does not share your IP address, phone number, or other personal information like regular messaging services.
After several weeks of text messages, Grunwald’s chats became sexually charged, with Grunwald coaxing the boy into sending him a photo of his penis, which the registered sex offender then shared with another. Prosecutors said he sent it to someone else.
“I do that with teenagers every day,” the Williamsburg man allegedly told the teenager in a text message. “[W]Oh, I like young boys. ”
Grunwald repeatedly drove to Rockland County, where the victim lived with family and worshiped.
Prosecutors said the boy bought gifts on Amazon, including a cell phone and a prepaid phone card, and demanded cash refunds, but Grunwald threatened him if he didn’t return them immediately.
In one message, translated from Yiddish, Grunwald told the boy that he would come to his mother’s house if he did not pay cash he believed he owed.
Grunwald reportedly said, “I’m going to wait a few days for payment.” “If you don’t, I’ll warn you with my life.”
In addition to the physical threats, Grunwald told the victim’s friends, family, and the public that she would release the photos and videos she had sent to the man.
“I’m going to call your mom,” Grunwald allegedly wrote. “I have her cell phone number. Good luck to her. I’m going to tell her girlfriend everything.”
In June or July, Grunwald picked up the boy near the Spring Valley synagogue and drove him to a dead-end road near Suzanne Lake in Mondsee, where he bought a cellphone and a phone to charge it for airtime. He reportedly gave her a gift card. Court documents.
Prosecutors said Grunwald put his hand on the boy’s knee and touched his penis and testicles for several minutes as the boy was unpacking the package.
Grunwald then relentlessly called and texted the boy from multiple numbers, blocking the numbers and sometimes sending them as many as 12 times a night, prosecutors said.
In late December, Grunwald sent the boy a text message claiming to be in yeshiva status. On December 30, he posted the boy’s phone number on a public Telegram group associated with the school.
On Jan. 3, a search warrant was executed at Grunwald’s Williamsburg apartment, where evidence of sexual abuse was found, prosecutors said.
Grunwald was convicted in November 2018 of sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy, records show.