PROVINCETOWN — Laurence Pagnoni, who founded a New York City-based consultancy in 1995, bought a condominium in Provincetown in 2021, and worked as a substitute teacher at the Provincetown Schools in 2022, was arrested on April 18 on charges that he possessed and distributed several thousand image and video files containing child pornography.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, Pagnoni, 63, was charged with one count of possession and one count of distribution of child sexual abuse material and was released on pretrial conditions including home detention and electronic monitoring.
Provincetown Schools Supt. Gerry Goyette sent an email to families on April 19 saying that he had “no evidence or knowledge that this individual engaged in any inappropriate behavior toward students. Your children’s safety is our top priority.”
Goyette said that Pagnoni had passed a Mass. Criminal Offender Record Information and fingerprint check, which searches a federal database for arrests. Pagnoni’s references did not raise any red flags, Goyette added.
Pagnoni, who still lives in Provincetown according to court records, worked as a substitute teacher on 13 days between March and May 2022, Goyette said.
According to a criminal complaint by FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force officer Michael Sullivan, Pagnoni began collecting child sexual abuse material in May 2022 and sent six messages containing “at least thousands of files” of child pornography to another person on May 10 and 16, 2022.
That person was arrested in November 2022 by Boston police on various child exploitation charges related to the possession and dissemination of child pornography and extortion of a child. Investigators found that Pagnoni had sent the files to him using the cloud storage platform Mega.
The FBI searched Pagnoni’s Provincetown condo in May 2023 and seized digital devices that contained “several thousand files” of child pornography. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified 51 files that contained images of known victims of sexual abuse, the affidavit in the criminal complaint said.
The Gmail account linked to Pagnoni’s Mega account that contained the images was “connected to Pagnoni through numerous means.” Pagnoni used the same email address to correspond with the Provincetown Schools, the affidavit said.
Pagnoni is the founder of a consulting company called LAPA Fundraising, which offers services to nonprofit organizations. As of April 30, LAPA’s website is no longer functional. According to internet archives documenting Pagnoni’s biography, he holds a Master of Public Administration degree and has taught at New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising and at Rutgers Business School’s Institute for Ethical Leadership. He is also the author of a book, The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution: Powerful Revenue Strategies to Take You to the Next Level.
According to the U.S. District Court’s conditions of release, Pagnoni is restricted to his residence every day from 2 p.m. to 9:30 a.m. and is required to receive mental health treatment as directed by probation. He is not permitted access to the internet or technology without prior authorization. Pagnoni’s lawyer, Nat Carney of the Boston firm J.W. Carney and Associates, did not respond to a request for a comment.
Goyette said that the court is overseeing the investigation into Pagnoni’s activity at the Provincetown Schools. “I am going to be calling every couple of weeks to see how the investigation is going and if they have discovered anything about our kids,” Goyette said. He added that no families or staff members have come forward regarding Pagnoni’s behavior.
According to Goyette, Pagnoni was “not a good fit for the school” and was not asked back in the fall of 2022. Goyette said that he heard complaints from middle-years students about Pagnoni’s attitude. “When the older kids come to you and say that he’s not nice, you listen,” he said.
Pagnoni mostly worked as a substitute in the middle grades, but he did work in one pre-K classroom, Goyette said. “He was never alone with the kids,” he added.
“It was very distressing to find out,” Goyette said of the news. “Along with the death of a student or teacher, the arrest of a teacher is the hardest thing to learn as a superintendent.”
The District Court case against Pagnoni is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation launched in May 2006 by the Dept. of Justice.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s statement, Pagnoni could face up to 40 years in prison if he is convicted on both charges.
