A neighbor of Phillip C. Heiney, the president of the Dunellen Board of Education charged in connection with child pornography, recalled a moment inside Heiney's home.
Phillip Heiney, 67. DUNELLEN -- The Dunellen Board of Education has not yet decided whether its president will remain in his role after being arrested on Tuesday on charges of distributing child pornography online.
School Superintendent Gene Mosley said the decision would be made at a later time.
In an emailed statement, Mosley said, "We just learned of the arrest and appreciate the efforts of law enforcement. Keeping in mind that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, we have no further comment at this time."
Mosley noted that the board president was not a paid position.
Heiney, 67, stands accused of possessing disturbing videos of young girls being sexually abused by men, as well as making those videos available to others on peer-to-peer file sharing networks, according to authorities in a previous report.
Yellow police tape was still visible on his porch Tuesday evening after authorities had searched his residence and seized his computer and numerous other electronic storage devices.
He has been charged with second-degree distribution of child pornography and third-degree possession of child pornography.
Dunellen Council President Kenneth Baudendistel declined comment, only saying that the investigation remained ongoing.
School board member Kathleen Guzzi also declined comment.
Juan Lara, a graduate of Dunellen High School, said he was stunned when he learned Heiney, his neighbor just a few doors down, had been arrested on child pornography charges.
Lara was standing on his porch with his mother, Gladys Pimentel, Tuesday night just after police had finished searching Heiney's home.
"You would never expect that," said Lara, 22.
Pimentel said Heiney was always very nice to her, and she too was taken aback.
"In the wintertime, he would be the first one to clean my sidewalk," she said.
Heiney was taken to Middlesex County Jail on Tuesday on $75,000 bail.
One of the videos Heiney is accused of having in a shared folder tied to his IP address showed "an adult male engaging in a sexual act with a prepubescent girl who was blindfolded and bound with rope" as well as "sexually explicit conduct involving a dog and the bound girl," according to the Attorney General's Office.
Heiney was elected to a three-year seat on the school board in 2008, and and was then reelected in 2014.
Heiney, a former technician at Green Brook Electronics on Route 22, also once served on the Middlesex Regional Educational Services Commission Board of Directors, according to a report by MyCentralJersey.com.
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.