Warrant: Former Connecticut marshal accused of child exploitation following 'extensive' police investigation

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — A former Connecticut judicial marshal was charged with risk of injury and child exploitation offenses after investigators found child sexual abuse material, police said Wednesday.

Joseph Cerruto, 27, of New Britain, was arrested on July 14, after the New Britain Police Department received an anonymous cyber tip in May. Police then began an “extensive investigation.”

The cyber tip from May 21 reported an incident of child sexual abuse material on a social media account, according to the arrest warrant. Documents allege Cerruto created the account on Dec. 12, 2025.

Content found on the account included multiple child sex abuse videos and text conversations he allegedly had between minor victims, the warrant states.

On July 14, members of the Homeland Security Investigations, New Britain Police Department Youth Bureau and Connecticut State Police sought an arrest warrant for Cerruto.

When the search team asked Cerruto for his phone — which state police saw him holding through the window — he could not locate it, the warrant states. Cerruto then said he “threw it and did not know where it may have landed.” Officials later found the phone inside his mattress.

In an interview with police, Cerruto denied that the social media account belonged to him, according to the arrest warrant. He also denied chatting with any underage girls.

Investigators later discovered Cerruto had a second social media app with “multiple fake user accounts,” that would allegedly use to request bikini pictures from “random girls,” the warrant states.

Detectives also found another social video app, where Cerruto allegedly pretended to be a 16-year-old boy, according to the warrant.

After investigators showed him the online content, Cerruto informed police “he had been struggling for a while with the temptation of messaging random females on social media and asking photos of them,” the warrant states. He also said “he has been really frustrated with himself and feeling guilty about it.”

Later that evening, Cerruto was charged with first-degree possession of child sexual abuse material, enticing a minor by use of computer, misrepresentation of age to entice a minor, and risk injury / impairing the morals of a child.

Cerruto was employed as a judicial marshal beginning on Nov. 2, 2023 in the Waterbury Judicial District. He resigned effective July 13, 2026, according to Executive Director of the External Affairs Division for the Connecticut Judicial Branch Stephen Ment.

Ment said the Judicial Branch declines comment, as the matter is pending.

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