Hawthorne, New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office December 01, 2011 |
CAMDEN, NJ—A Hawthorne, N.J., man admitted today to downloading images of young children engaged in sexual activity and posed in a sexually explicit manner, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Seidel, 48, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas to an information charging him with one count of possession of child pornography.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made during Seidel’s guilty plea proceeding in Camden federal court:
Seidel admitted to possessing videos of child pornography that he had downloaded from the Internet, acknowledging that he had videos he knew depicted prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The files were downloaded using a peer-to-peer file-sharing program.
A search of Seidel’s residence by law enforcement uncovered hundreds of child pornography files, including videos of a young girl being raped and a toddler being sexually abused.
As part of his guilty plea, Seidel agreed to forfeit computers and computer accessories which he used to commit the offense.
The defendant was previously charged by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office for related conduct—pursuant to an investigation by Passaic County Sheriff’s Office and the Hawthorne Detectives Bureau—before the child pornography possession case was referred for federal prosecution.
The count to which Seidel pleaded guilty carries a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is also required to register as a sex offender. Seidel is currently scheduled to be sentenced on March 16, 2012.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Squad assigned to Innocent Images, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward in Newark, with the investigation leading to the guilty plea. He also thanked the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, Passaic County Sheriff’s Department and Hawthorne Detective Bureau for their invaluable work.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane H. Yoon of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
Defense counsel: Peter Till Esq., Springfield, N.J.