Monmouth County Man Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison for Using Facebook to Induce Minor to Send Sexually Explicit Pictures and Videos

TRENTON, N.J. – A Monmouth County, New Jersey man, was sentenced today to 87 months in prison for knowingly receiving child pornography, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

Herman Christopher Jensen, 68, of Union Beach, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan to a one-count information charging him with knowingly receiving child pornography. Judge Sheridan imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

The FBI began investigating Jensen for assuming the identity of a 17-year-old boy in order to entice and solicit an underage girl to send nude and sexually explicit images over the internet.  Jensen did this by creating a fake Facebook account, purporting to be a teenaged boy named “Kevin Bennett.” From January 2018 through about August 2018, Jensen used the “Kevin Bennett” Facebook account to communicate with the minor victim frequently, causing her to believe that she was involved in a romantic relationship with “Kevin Bennett.” 

Jensen requested nude and semi-nude photographs from the victim minor through Facebook’s messenger service. As time went on, Jensen received increasingly explicit videos depicting the minor victim engaging in sexually explicit activity. In August of 2018, Jensen revealed to the minor victim that he was not, in fact, the 17 year-old teenager he purported to be, but instead an adult named Chris Jenson. The victim continued to communicate with Jensen via the “Chris Jensen” Facebook account. In December 2018, the minor victim traveled to New Jersey to live with Jensen.

On Dec. 19, 2018, local authorities became involved in the matter causing the removal of the victim from Jensen’s residence.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Sheridan sentenced Jensen to lifetime supervised release.

Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited special agents and task force officers of the FBI and the Red Bank Resident Agency’s Jersey Shore Gang and Criminal Organization Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr., with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing. She also thanked the Union Beach Police Department, under the direction of Chief of Police Michael J. Woodrow, and the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency, for their assistance.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Farhat of the Government Frauds Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Newark.