NEWARK — An Ivy League-educated doctor who practiced in Berkeley Heights admitted Tuesday to receiving and distributing more than 200 images and videos of sadistic and violent child pornography on the internet and his home computer.

A federal criminal complaint against Rocco Martino of South Orange describes images of prepubescent children that are highly graphic and disturbing, including restrained and gagged toddlers.

The complaint was filed in December 2010, and Martino, who had practiced internal and sports medicine in Berkeley Heights for at least five years, resigned last January.

The 43-year-old doctor had joined a major New Jersey medical group following his education and training at top U.S. schools — including Columbia, Princeton and Brown universities.

Martino, who pleaded guilty to one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography, now faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in April.

He voluntarily resigned from his medical practice, said his attorney, Lawrence Lustberg. The lawyer added that Martino hopes to practice medicine again someday, depending on the outcome of his sentencing.

“It’s a terrible offense, and he’s going to pay very dearly for it,” Lustberg also said.

On a biography page formerly posted by Summit Medical Group, a sprawling practice with more than 200 practitioners and nearly 20 offices scattered around northern New Jersey, a kindly looking Martino is photographed in his white physician’s coat.

But according to federal authorities, the doctor admitted Tuesday before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark that in late 2010 he downloaded and posted approximately 194 images and 27 videos using peer-to-peer file-sharing software. A statement from U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said “images downloaded by federal investigators and found on Martino’s computer included pictures of very young children being restrained and sexually abused — including a bound and gagged toddler.” In one case, a naked 3-year-old girl is tied up and has lewd words scrawled on her stomach.

After Tuesday’s guilty plea, the Summit group said through a spokesman: “Dr. Martino voluntarily resigned from the practice and has not been employed for more than a year; it is a very unfortunate situation.” Richard Rubenstein, the spokesman, added no allegations or complaints of inappropriate behavior were made against Martino during his five years with the practice. He added, “As an internist, he primarily treated adults, and adolescent patients were less than 1 percent of his total practice.”

Lustberg said Tuesday that Martino, who he said grew up in Closter, Bergen County, has been attending “intensive therapy sessions with a well-known practitioner.”

“I’m confident, at the sentencing, we’ll have a report from him (the therapist) on not only how much effort he’s put into his therapy, but also how much progress he’s made,” Lustberg said. He added Martino has not faced any other criminal charges.

According to information once posted but since removed from the Summit Medical Group’s website, Martino went to medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick and then did his residency at Brown in Rhode Island. He got an undergraduate degree in engineering and applied sciences from Columbia and a master’s in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton.

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