Renee Hoberman, Plainview child therapist, gets 7 years on child pornography conviction

A federal judge sentenced a Plainview child therapist to 7 years in prison Friday for trading in "horrifying" child pornography at a time when she was also offering mental health counseling to youngsters.

U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert commended Renee Hoberman, 37, for voluntarily surrendering her social worker’s license and admitting her guilt, but said a defense-requested mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years was not enough punishment for her admitted crimes.

"I need to protect the public from the defendant," Seybert said, adding that child pornography defendants who have received minimum sentences from her in the past have "come back always."

Seybert noted that the charges in the indictment were based on three short videos Hoberman exchanged of young children being sexually abused, all infants or toddlers, which added up to "two minutes of agony for babies who were never identified."

"We’re talking about babies," the judge underscored. "It’s just unimaginable."

During brief remarks she read in court, the former child therapist apologized to victims, the court, family and friends. Hoberman also said she was sorry "for the hurt that I have caused clients."

Prosecutors said the three videos were just a small portion of the evidence, saying investigators would later find more than 100 files of child sexual abuse material on Hoberman’s devices, including videos that were even more "depraved, sordid and shocking" than the materials in court.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin McTague said a task force investigator who has dedicated his career to eradicating child pornography described Hoberman’s videos as "the worst of the worst." She said Hoberman confessed to receiving sexual gratification from the videos.
"It is truly a horrific thing to wrap your head around," said McTague, who sought a prison sentence of 12 years, 7 months for Hoberman, the high end of an agreed-upon guideline sentence.

McTague said prosecutors found it particularly troubling that Hoberman pursued a career working with children, calling her a "predator" and "danger to society."

At the time of her arrest Hoberman, who had a master's degree in social work, was offering mental health counseling for a company with an office in Melville but McTague said she also worked in the past at a day care facility and a school for autistic children.

Defense attorney Evan Sugar, of Hauppauge, argued Hoberman’s career was an example of a healthy way she processed trauma she had endured in life, which included being sexually abused herself. He said it was a way his client helped kids dealing with some of the hardships she experienced. He noted that no evidence was ever uncovered that she personally abused children.

Sugar was also candid about some of the unhealthy ways Hoberman dealt with past traumas, including not treating her own mental illness and abusing drugs.

The attorney said the times when Hoberman traded in child pornography were during occasional dayslong binges when she would lock herself in her car to smoke crack cocaine and engage with child sexual abuse materials through encrypted chats with others. He said the time Hoberman has spent in jail since her October 2024 arrest has led her to seek help and changed her as a person.

"She doesn’t want to be the woman in that car ... she wants to be at home with her family," Sugar said.

Among the family members who supported Hoberman in court Friday were her adoptive parents, a brother and her biological mother. Hoberman thanked her family for attending as she addressed the court.

Hoberman said by not treating her own mental health issues, she provided clients with "a lower quality of care than they deserved." She vowed to be a safe person upon her eventual release from prison, to remain sober and to "find a new purpose in life."

A pre-sentence filing revealed that federal investigators estimate based on a review of Hoberman’s online chat history that she likely traded more than 600 photos and videos of child sexual abuse before her arrest.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation into the therapist after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received several online tips regarding Kik Messenger conversations about child sexual abuse material, court records show.

Prosecutors said that between June and September 2024, Hoberman, who went by the nickname Rina, uploaded at least 20 images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, some showing females as young as 6 months old. She was also accused by investigators of masquerading in an online chat as an abusive father with videos of his own kids.

"In one particularly disturbing chat, [Hoberman] even provided a clothed photograph of an identified child — a family friend — whom she said was her own and discussed details of abuse of that child," McTague wrote in the filing.

Hoberman was arrested by agents with Homeland Security Investigations on Oct. 23, 2024, and was indicted the following month by a grand jury that charged her with three counts of receipt and distribution of child sexual abuse material and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material. She pleaded guilty to one count of receipt and distribution in June.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.