By: E&P Staff The kids' publication, The Weekly Reader, has fired editor Noel Neff, 46, who was arrested by the FBI Saturday while allegedly trying to solicit sex with a person he believed was a teenage boy he met on the Internet.
Neff had worked at the company for four years, and wrote many articles and took pictures for the Reader. As E&P reported earlier this week, he has also written freelance articles for newspapers and magazines.
He was arrested by FBI agents at a music store at the Franklin Village Mall in Franklin, Mass., on Saturday afternoon, when he showed up to meet who he allegedly thought was a 14-year-old boy. He was charged with using an interstate facility, the Web, to entice a minor to engage in sexual activities.
Reporters' calls to Neff's Boston attorney, Chauncey Wood, have not been returned.
"Mr. Neff's employment has been terminated," Mia Toschi, a spokeswoman for Weekly Reader Corp. of Stamford, Conn., said Wednesday. "We remain deeply troubled by this report and will cooperate fully with the authorities."
Neff was released Monday on a $25,000 bond and is scheduled to appear for a probable cause hearing at a federal court in Boston on July 28.
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