Registered Sex Offender Charged with Distributing Images of Child Sexual Abuse from New Jersey Law Office Computer
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 24, 2013 |
NEWARK, NJ—A registered sex offender employed at a law office in Paterson, New Jersey will appear in court today following his arrest at the office late yesterday after law enforcement officers discovered alleged child pornography on his work computer, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Kevin Rease, 32, of Hackettstown, New Jersey, is charged by complaint with one count of distributing images of child sex abuse over the Internet. He is scheduled to appear this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer in Newark federal court.
According to the criminal complaint:
On March 12, 2013, an undercover FBI agent downloaded images depicting child sexual abuse from an individual using an assumed name on a public Internet-based peer-to-peer file sharing network. The investigation revealed that the individual was logged onto the network using an Internet protocol (IP) address belonging to the law office where he worked.
The FBI executed a search warrant yesterday at the Paterson law office, seizing digital images depicting child sexual abuse, including material involving prepubescent minors. Rease’s work computer was logged onto the peer-to-peer network at the time under the same assumed name that had offered illegal images for download on March 12.
As a previously convicted sex offender, Rease faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum potential penalty of 40 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the offense.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, Newark Division’s Child Exploitation Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford in Newark, with the investigation leading to the arrest.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Alfonzo Walsman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark.
The charge and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.