A New York State Police sergeant is in federal custody after prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint on Friday, November 6, 2026, charging him with sexually exploiting two children and possessing child sexual abuse material. Steven Calderon, 43, of the Town of Crawford in Orange County, New York, was arrested on Friday morning and presented the same afternoon before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy in federal court in White Plains, where he was ordered detained, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. Every fact drawn from the complaint in this report is an allegation: Calderon has not been convicted of these charges and is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty. In line with Awaaz Punjab's minor-safety rule, the children in this case are identified only by the ages given in the federal complaint — 10 and 9 — and never by name or image.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

The complaint charges Calderon with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography, the term federal prosecutors use in the release for child sexual abuse material. Announcing the case were U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr., and New York State Police Superintendent Steven G. James — the head of the very force in which Calderon has served as a sergeant since about 2022, according to the complaint.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

What the federal complaint alleges

As alleged in the complaint, the federal case grew out of a state investigation. On or about October 25, 2026, New York State Police executed a search warrant at Calderon's Orange County residence in connection with an assault investigation and recovered various electronic surveillance equipment and storage devices. Review of the devices allegedly found thousands of sexually explicit images and videos of children, including prepubescent children, as well as numerous videos that appear to have been taken secretly in a bathroom in Calderon's residence, prosecutors say.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

Prosecutors allege that on or about July 25, 2026, Calderon secretly recorded a 10-year-old child, identified in the complaint only as Victim-1, in a bathroom in order to capture sexually explicit images, and then edited the recording to create a short clip. They further allege that on or about February 3, 2023, he secretly video-recorded a 9-year-old child, identified only as Victim-2, in a bathroom and created a sexually explicit screenshot from the recording. Awaaz Punjab is reporting these allegations in the restrained terms the Justice Department itself uses, because the accused is a serving police supervisor and the case is a matter of public record — not to add detail the court documents do not contain.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

An assault arrest came first

The search warrant followed Calderon's arrest a day earlier in a separate state case. Hudson Valley reporting on that arrest said Calderon was taken into custody by the Crawford Police Department on Sunday, October 25, 2026, and charged with second-degree assault and third-degree assault after a domestic incident at a home on Bullville Road in the Town of Crawford that allegedly left his former intimate partner with serious injuries; police were first notified after the victim went to a local hospital for treatment. He was arraigned in Orange County Centralized Arraignment Court, released on his own recognizance without bail, and an order of protection was issued for the victim. The State Police suspended him without pay. Local reporting adds that Calderon joined the State Police in 2017 and was assigned to the Middletown barracks, Troop F.

Source: 94.3 Lite FM / Hudson Valley Post

"Steven Calderon's alleged crimes are all the more disturbing knowing he committed these alleged acts while serving as a law enforcement officer — a position entrusted with protecting the public including its most vulnerable members," U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in the Justice Department release. "The defendant's alleged acts are a profound betrayal of the public trust and the oath he swore to uphold." FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said: "Steven Calderon's alleged actions constitute a shocking breach of the public trust placed in law enforcement," adding that "no badge, title, or position will shield those who prey upon children."

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

State Police Superintendent Steven G. James said in the same release: "The allegations against Sergeant Calderon are deeply disturbing and stand in direct opposition to the oath every member of the New York State Police takes to protect and serve." He added: "Our responsibility to protect children and investigate allegations of abuse does not change when the accused wears our uniform. We remain committed to supporting the victims and working with the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and our local partners to ensure a thorough investigation."

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

Background: the charges and what they carry

Calderon, 43, is charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, each of which carries a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years, and one count of possessing child pornography, which carries a maximum of 20 years. The Justice Department release stresses that these maximums are prescribed by Congress and are given for information only: any sentence, if there is a conviction, will be determined by a judge. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office's White Plains Division, by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samantha Briggs and Marcia S. Cohen. McDonald praised the work of the FBI, the Town of Crawford Police Department, the Orange County District Attorney's Office and the New York State Police on the investigation.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

A federal complaint is the first formal step in a prosecution, not a finding of guilt. Cases of this kind typically proceed to a grand jury, which decides whether to return an indictment on the same or additional charges, and the defendant can contest the evidence at hearings and, if it goes that far, at trial. Calderon's detention at his first appearance means a judge found he should remain in custody while the federal case moves forward; the separate state assault case, in which he had earlier been released with an order of protection, was already pending in Crawford Town Court, local reporting said.

Source: 94.3 Lite FM / Hudson Valley Post

For readers in New York — including the state's large Punjabi and wider South Asian communities in the Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island — the case lands on two levels. It is, first, a child-safety story: prosecutors allege the recordings were made inside a home, over a span running from February 2023 to July 2026, and investigators are publicly asking whether anyone else was harmed. It is also a public-trust story: the accused supervised troopers out of the Middletown barracks, and all three agencies announcing the case — the U.S. Attorney, the FBI and the State Police itself — framed their statements around the oath attached to the badge.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY

What happens next

Calderon remains detained after his November 6 presentation in White Plains. The next steps in the federal case are a decision by prosecutors on presenting the complaint to a grand jury and further court appearances in the Southern District of New York; no trial date has been set, and the State Police and FBI investigations are continuing alongside the FBI's public appeal for information. His state assault case in Crawford Town Court also remains pending. Awaaz Punjab will report the indictment decision and any court ruling as they are filed, and will continue to identify the children in this case only by age.