Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison and Lifetime Supervised Release for Distributing Child Pornography While on Supervised Release

NEWARK, N.J. – A Union County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 180 months in prison for distributing multiple images depicting child sexual abuse while on supervised release for possessing and receiving child pornography, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Hugh Cohen, 65, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini to an information charging him with one count of distributing child pornography. Judge Martini imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

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

Cohen was previously convicted in federal court on a two-count indictment charging him with possessing and receiving child pornography in 2010, for which Cohen was sentenced to five years in prison followed by seven years of supervised release. Supervised release commenced on Oct. 29, 2014 and was to expire on Oct. 28, 2021.

While still on supervised release, from March 28, 2021, to April 24, 2021, Cohen engaged an undercover agent in an ongoing sexually graphic conversation on a web-based application. Cohen sent the undercover agent multiple images depicting the sexual abuse of children. Law enforcement also subsequently discovered numerous images of child sexual abuse on Cohen’s cellphone.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Martini sentenced Cohen to a lifetime term of supervised release. Cohen must also register as a sex offender.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents with the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy, and special agents of Homeland Security Investigations Newark, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Kurtz, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney DeNae M. Thomas of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division in Newark.