‘This is not the daughter I know,’ says biological mother of LI child therapist facing child pornography charges

The biological mother of a Long Island child therapist accused of distributing child pornography told Newsday on Friday that she was “stunned” to hear about the federal criminal charges and “prays these allegations are false.”

Renee Hoberman, 36, of Plainview, he pleaded not guilty He pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Central Islip to a single count of distributing child pornography. The defendant, also called “Rina,” is being held at a federal detention center in Brooklyn after U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene Lindsay remanded her into custody following her arraignment, calling her a “danger to the community.”

Hoberman, a licensed social worker, allegedly distributed Child pornography, including videos depicting the “restraint and rape of infants,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said earlier in a statement.

In a telephone interview from her home in Pennsylvania, Hoberman’s biological mother, 59-year-old Brenda Pun, said she was concerned to hear about the allegations ions. “This is not the daughter I know,” she said.

“It would be difficult to support her if it were true that she did such things,” Pun said, emphasizing: “I want pure, direct evidence.”

Pun admitted that she has a distant relationship with her daughter, whom she says the Hoberman family adopted and raised on Long Island. She said Friday that when her daughter was just a few days old, dangerous circumstances in Pun’s life forced her to give her up for adoption in 1988.

“I wanted her to be safe,” Pun added.

According to Pun, they reconnected in 2010 thanks to a private investigator Hoberman hired to find her biological mother.

“It was fantastic,” he recalls of this meeting. She said Hoberman quickly formed a bond with her two brothers, one who is now 22 and the other who is 41 and has Down syndrome.

“She handles them well,” said the Pennsylvania resident.

Attempts to reach Hoberman’s adoptive parents were unsuccessful.

The complaint says Hoberman has been employed as a therapist at LifeStance Health in Melville since 2022 and works with children up to age 17.

A LifeStance spokesman said in a statement that Hoberman was “immediately” terminated from her part-time job after learning of her arrest.

“We take this matter extremely seriously and have immediately terminated the provider’s contract and are working with patients to transfer their care to another provider. “We have not received any information from authorities indicating that any patients were impacted by the alleged action,” he added in a statement.

The company also said it would cooperate with investigators.

Court documents show Hoberman also provided youth counseling to children at Amityville Hospital. On her LinkedIn page, the defendant mentions working at South Oaks Hospital.

A spokeswoman for Northwell Health, which runs South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, said Friday that Hoberman last worked for the health system in 2021, but she couldn’t say where.

According to prosecutors, Hoberman’s cell phone was confiscated during her home arrest Wednesday, containing a folder with videos showing the rape of children under 2 years old by adult men.

During an interview Wednesday in federal custody, Hoberman allegedly told investigators that she “is aroused and sexually gratified by children, with a preference for children from infancy to age three,” according to the complaint.

“There are no allegations that Ms. Hoberman ever abused a child,” Hoberman’s attorney, Evan Sugar of the Federal Defenders of New York, wrote in an email Friday.

“She is a woman with no criminal record who deserves to have her day in court and to have her rights respected,” he added.