A popular Philadelphia chef who owns a trendy Rittenhouse Square eatery was indicted after a federal child pornography sting that apparently involved photos of his ex-girlfriend's young niece.
Alex Capasso, co-owner of Crow and The Pitcher at 19th and Manning streets and several other restaurants, was arrested Monday following an two-week long online and text message exchange with an undercover FBI agent.
According to court documents, Capasso answered an online ad labeled "100% serious! NO LIMITS. NOTHING TOO NASTY. yes even the illegal stuff. If you’re serious, lmk." and traded photos with a person he believed was the father of a 9-year-old girl.
In the extremely graphic exchange, Capasso allegedly admitted to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl he identified as his former girlfriend's niece, court records say. Explicit photos and videos of the young girl's genitals were also shared.
The 40-year-old chef and father also recorded videos off of an old Blackberry smartphone with a distinctive crack on the screen and shared them, according to the indictment.
The undercover agent asked Capasso to travel to Washington, D.C. to engage in sexual relations with the pretend 9-year-old — a request Capasso was interested in pursuing, agents said in court documents.
Following his arrest, agents said Capasso admitted to sharing child pornography, but denied knowing the girl, saying they were photos he found online. An analysis of the images found, however, they were taken a year before the exchange and matched comments made by the chef.
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Capasso has two sons and a daughter on the way. Court documents show he allegedly told the undercover agent he was looking forward to sexually assaulting his unborn daughter.
Attempts to reach his court-appointed attorney have been unsuccessful. Capasso faces 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
Michael Franco, co-owner of Crow and the Pitcher, released a statement on the allegations against Capasso.
We're all shocked at the allegations against the Chef today, He had been missing from work for a week. Alex's girlfriend contacted us to say that he would not return to work because of child support issues. We're going to keep the kitchen running, nothing is going to change with our service. I sat down with the servers [the 20 employees] and told them that we're going to make it through this as a family. I'm worried about the people who work here and we're going to pull through this together. In the interim our dear friend Chef Georges Perrier has offered to step in and help our kitchen staff through this crisis.
