TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced
that a Somerset County doctor pleaded guilty
today to possessing child pornography.
According
to Director Taylor, Ross B. Finesmith, 49,
of the Basking Ridge section of Bernards
Township, a pediatric neurologist, pleaded
guilty to one count of fourth-degree possession
of child pornography before Superior Court
Judge Stephen B. Rubin in Hunterdon County.
Under
the plea agreement, Finesmith will be permanently
barred from practicing medicine in any state.
He faces a term of probation, during which
he must undergo a psychological evaluation
and complete any recommended course of treatment
at his own expense. He must have no unsupervised
contact with children under 16 and will
be prohibited from visiting social networking
sites or using peer-to-peer file sharing
software.
Sentencing
is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2011. Deputy Attorney
General Kenneth R. Sharpe of the Division
of Criminal Justice Computer Analysis and
Technology Unit took the guilty plea. He
handled the case with Deputy Attorney General
Lee Schaer and Sergeant John Gorman of the
State Police Digital Technology Investigations
Unit.
Finesmith
was indicted by a state grand jury on July
14, 2005, as a result of Operation Guardian,
an investigation by the New Jersey State
Police Child Protection and Cyber-Crime
Bureau, the Division of Criminal Justice,
and the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against
Children (ICAC) Task Force.
Operation
Guardian led to the arrest of 39 people
in New Jersey on child pornography charges
in January 2005. A member of the Wyoming
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
developed a file sifting technique that
was used to detect and trace known videos
of child pornography, specifically infamous
“Baby J” videos of a Georgia
man raping a 4-year-old girl. Those arrested
in New Jersey were charged with downloading
the videos and, in some cases, sharing them
online.
The
State Police arrested Finesmith on Jan.
27, 2005 and seized computers from his home
and car. In pleading guilty, Finesmith admitted
that he possessed child pornography on a
laptop computer seized from his car. The
Attorney General’s Office filed a
consent order on March 27, 2006, by which
Finesmith voluntarily surrendered his license
to practice medicine in New Jersey.
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