Local News in Brief : Man Faces Bail Hearing on Child Porn Charges

A Van Nuys man who was one of nine people indicted in New Jersey on child pornography charges is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate today for a bail hearing, authorities said.

Robert David Villard, 40, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Camden, N.J., said Howard Wiener, an assistant U.S. attorney in Camden.

Villard is charged with three counts of interstate transportation of child pornography, Wiener said.

The indictment alleges that, in July, 1984, Villard brought a sexually explicit videotape--in which a young boy appeared--from Wildwood, N.J., to California, Wiener said. Villard is alleged to have taken three similarly explicit magazines and a magazine cover from California to New Jersey and back in November, he said.

The indictments stemmed from a two-year investigation that also reached into Maryland, Pennsylvania, Florida and New York, said FBI spokesman Edward J. Gerrity.

Villard has described himself as “an agent for child actors,” Wiener said. But he is not licensed as a talent agent in California, and neither the Screen Actors Guild nor the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has an agreement to work with him.