TRENTON – Attorney
General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice
Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that
former New Jersey Assemblyman Neil M. Cohen
was sentenced to prison today for distributing
child pornography.
According to Director Taylor,
Cohen, 59, of Paramus, was sentenced to
five years in state prison by Superior Court
Judge Gerald J. Council in Mercer County.
Cohen will be permanently barred from any
public employment or elected office, and
he will be required to register as a sex
offender under Megan’s Law. Judge
Council ordered that Cohen be returned for
10 days to Trenton Psychiatric Hospital,
where he had been involuntarily committed,
while the Department of Corrections works
out how Cohen will be placed in the prison
system.
Cohen pleaded guilty on
April 12 to endangering the welfare of a
child (distribution of child pornography).
That second-degree charge was contained
in an indictment obtained by the Division
of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau.
In pleading guilty, Cohen
admitted that he viewed images of child
pornography on a computer in the 20th Legislative
District Office in Union Township and printed
copies of images of child pornography that
he placed in the desk of a female receptionist
in the office.
“By viewing and distributing
child pornography, Mr. Cohen made himself
a part of the network of suppliers and users
whose actions serve to promote this abhorrent
exploitation of children,” said Attorney
General Dow. “Prison is the appropriate
sentence for his crime.”
“Mr. Cohen’s
use of a computer in his legislative office
to print out child pornography compounded
his offense,” said Director Taylor.
“State residents should feel outraged
that he used equipment paid for with their
tax dollars to commit this despicable crime.”
The case was prosecuted
by Deputy Attorney General Anthony A. Picione,
Deputy Chief of the Corruption Bureau, and
Deputy Attorney General Christine Hoffman,
Chief of the Corruption Bureau. They represented
the state at sentencing. The charges are
the result of an investigation by the New
Jersey State Police and the Division of
Criminal Justice.
In July 2008, the New Jersey
State Police were notified of child pornography
found in the 20th Legislative District office.
The State Police and the Division of Criminal
Justice immediately commenced an investigation.
Detectives from the State
Police and Division of Criminal Justice
executed a search warrant to seize the hard
drives from the computers in the legislative
office. A review of the hard drives yielded
multiple images of child pornography. The
investigation revealed that Cohen was the
individual who viewed and printed child
pornography. Cohen was first indicted by
a state grand jury on Dec. 17, 2008. That
indictment was superseded by a second indictment
on July 9, 2009.
Cohen served more than 16
years in the New Jersey Assembly. He resigned
from the Assembly on July 28, 2008 after
the investigation became public.
The investigation was conducted
for the Division of Criminal Justice by
Sgt. David Salzmann, Detective Michael Behar,
Sgt. Warren Monroe, Detective Harry Maronpot,
and Deputy Attorney General Anthony A. Picione
in the Corruption Bureau, and Deputy Attorney
General Kenneth Sharpe in the Computer Analysis
and Technology Unit.
The investigation was conducted
for the State Police by Detective Sgt. 1st
Class Bryant Hoar, Detective Sgt. 1st Class
Joseph Celli III, Detective Sgt. Karl Ulbrich,
Detective Deniele DeBoer and Detective Anthony
Carugno of the Official Corruption Unit;
Sgt. Charles Allen, Detective Gregory Godish
and Lt. Keith Halton of the Digital Technology
Investigations Unit; and Detective Denman
Powers of the Regional Computer Forensics
Laboratory.
If
you suspect that someone is using or distributing
child pornography on the Internet or suspect
improper contact by unknown persons communicating
with children via the Internet contact the
Division of Criminal Justice Computer Analysis
& Technology Unit Tip Line at 1-800-396-2310
or report it at www.njdcj.org.
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