Cartoon Network Show Creator Kyle Carrozza Arrested On Child Pornography Possession Charges
Kyle Adam Carrozza, creator of the Cartoon Network series Mighty Magiswords, was booked last month by the Burbank Police Department on two counts of child pornography possession.
Carrozza, 45, was arrested at an apartment complex in Burbank, California, on the morning of Thursday, June 20, at 7:30 am. The arrest was part of an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigation. The arrest was reported in the Burbank Police Department’s daily arrest log (download PDF).
Carrozza’s Mighty Magiswords debuted on Cartoon Network’s CN Anything app as a 15-second micro-series in 2015. The show was “custom created for the way young audiences consume media today,” Rob Sorcher, then-chief content officer for Cartoon Network, said in 2016. “This is about how stories can be told in new ways and how a community can play together.”
Nearly 400 pieces of platform-specific content were created around Carrozza’s show, including shorts, vlogs, web/mobile games, and interactive narrative content. Then, in 2016, Cartoon Network turned the project into a linear tv series, which lasted for two seasons and over 90 episodes.
According to Carrozza’s Linkedin page, he had most recently been a board artist on Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish and The Casagrandes Movie. His other credits include storyboarding on Warner Bros. Animation’s Animaniacs reboot, Apple TV+’s The Snoopy Show, Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins, Disney’s Fish Hooks, Frederator’s Bravest Warriors, and Nickelodeon’s Fanboy & Chum Chum, as well as doing character layout on Paramount’s Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water. He also created the short MooBeard the Cow Pirate for Nickelodeon’s Random! Cartoons.
Carrozza has been charged under California penal code 311.11(a), which is possession of child pornography, and an enhanced 311.11(c) charge, which is for individuals knowingly in possession of at least 12 videos, or 600 images, of child pornography.
The offenses can be charged as either a misdemeanor or felony and are punishable by up to one year in county jail or up to five years in state prison. If found guilty of either charge, Carrozza will be ordered to register as a sex offender with law enforcement. The crimes he is accused of do not apply to drawings, figurines, statues, or films rated by the Motion Picture Association.
