Porn alert leads to arrest of 'Santa'
Agents say he admitted sex abuse of young boys
Wayne Nelson Corliss told authorities he had sex with three boys in Thailand six years ago, an experience he described as "euphoria," a prosecutor said Thursday at Corliss' first court appearance.
The arrest of the bespectacled, gray-haired 58-year-old at his Union City apartment late Wednesday capped a two-day global manhunt, just the second time Interpol has sought the public's help in tracking down a suspected pedophile. He is believed to have sexually abused at least three boys thought to have been 6 to 10 years old, according to the international police agency.
Corliss is charged with producing child pornography and could face 10 to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark.
At Thursday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Vartan said Corliss told the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who arrested him that he had sex with three boys over three nights in Thailand in 2002. "He described it as 'euphoria' to the agents," Vartan said.
Corliss, who spoke only twice during the court appearance, said he was a comedy writer and a member of the Screen Actors Guild. He asked for a lawyer to be appointed to him but was not asked to enter a plea. He was being held without bond pending a hearing Monday.
A SAG spokeswoman said the union does not confirm who is or is not a member.
Neighbors and colleagues know Corliss, who acted under the stage name Casey Wayne, as a witty man who liked to write and eschewed 9-to-5 jobs in favor of acting and entertainment gigs — including painting faces and playing Santa Claus at parties.
Judy Stone, a neighbor who worked with him as an entertainer at corporate parties, art fairs and bar mitzvahs, said he did a wonderful job.
"He's the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen," Stone said. "I've never seen him act in a way that was creepy or predatory toward children."
Raven Squire, the superintendent of the apartment building where Corliss has lived for more than two decades, said Corliss was very computer savvy and had a cluttered apartment, but that he never saw anything inappropriate there.
"He's a very amiable man, a great sense of wittiness," Squire said. "He seemed very stable, always paid his rent."
Corliss' arrest came two days after Interpol took the rare step of asking for the public's help. Two years of investigation had failed to determine the identity, whereabouts or even the nationality of the man seen in the pictures.
Recent comments
Yes, whatever he did, he didn't do it HERE to an AMERICAN child...
Anonymous | May 9, 2008 at 8:38 a.m.
Once again we learn just how dangerous these creeps are. Everybody...
Another "Good Guy" | May 9, 2008 at 6:39 a.m.
