Philadelphia restaurateur facing child porn charges

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- A Philadelphia restaurateur is under arrest and charged as part of a federal child pornography investigation.

FBI agents arrested 41-year-old Alex Capasso, co-owner of Center City's Crow & the Pitcher, at his home in Collingswood, New Jersey on Monday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Capasso sent sexually explicit text messages and photos to an undercover agent.

Michael Franco is Capasso's business partner. He was blindsided by the charges.

"Just shocking! How do you expect something like that?" said Franco.

"We're going to move forward. I have over 15 employees that over the last year, we really become like a family. It's hitting us hard, we are going to band together," Franco said.

In court documents, Capasso tells investigators the 5-year-old in the photos is the niece of an ex-girlfriend, and were taken a year earlier.

Authorities allege that Capasso repeatedly implied during the course of the text exchange that he sexually abused the child.

He also allegedly told agents he could not wait to sexually abuse his soon-to-be-born daughter.

Capasso also used the images of the 5-year-old to barter for additional child pornography images, and made tentative plans to travel to Washington DC for the "sole purpose of engaging in sexual acts with the undercover officer's purported 9-year-old daughter," the court documents allege.

Authorities say in addition to the child distribution charges Capasso currently faces, he will likely also face child pornography production charges after new evidence was found on his cell phone.

Marilus Rodriguez lives next door of Capasso.

"My prayers go out to the families of the victims. This world is already full of hateful people, to know that someone would do that to a child so young child - a child period," said Rodriguez.

Capasso faces these charges in Washington D.C. because that's where the messages were sent. His lawyer says he will not fight extradition.

This isn't the first time Capasso has been accused of a sex crime. He has a prior conviction in Camden County when back in 1997 he was arrested for sexual assault, but pled down to a lesser charge.

He eventually served one year in prison, but the facts of that case have not been released.