Ocean County Man Gets 5 Years For Sharing Child Porn

TRENTON, NJ — An Ocean County has been sentenced to five years in prison for distributing child pornography on the internet, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced Friday.

Fabian Maldonado-Espinosa, 32, of Lakewood, was sentenced to five years in state prison, including 2-1/2 years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels in Ocean County, Porrino's office said. Maldonado-Espinosa pleaded guilty on Jan. 23 to second-degree distribution of child pornography. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life, officials said.

Maldonado-Espinosa was arrested July 20, 2016, in “Operation Statewide,” a child pornography sweep by the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which includes the New Jersey State Police, Division of Criminal Justice, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and numerous state, county and local law enforcement agencies, officials said.

In pleading guilty, Maldonado-Espinosa admitted that he knowingly used file sharing software to make multiple files containing child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a shared folder on his computer, Porrino's office said. The New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit downloaded a video of child pornography from a shared folder on Maldonado-Espinosa’s computer while monitoring a peer-to-peer file-sharing network popular with sex offenders. The video showed a prepubescent girl performing a sexual act on an adult man, prosecutors said.

The computer address from which the video was downloaded was traced to Maldonado-Espinosa’s residence. He was arrested when members of the State Police DTIU executed a search warrant at his residence and seized several devices, including laptop computers, hard drives and an iPad. A forensic exam of one of the laptops revealed multiple videos and images of child pornography in a shared folder, prosecutors said.

Operation Statewide led to arrests of 40 men last year, including defendants in every county of New Jersey. During the operation, investigators linked all of the defendants to alleged use of the internet to download and distribute child pornography through peer-to-peer sharing networks.

Detectives downloaded child pornography that the defendants allegedly offered from their computers on P2P networks, tracing the files to their origin locations, prosecutors said.

Anyone with information about distribution of child pornography on the internet – or about suspected improper contact by people communicating with children via the internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children – to please contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 888-648-6007.

Photo of Fabian Maldonado-Espinosa via NJ Attorney General's Office