Man Stationed At Joint Base Charged With Child Porn Possession

A Burlington County man who serves in the U.S. Air Force and is stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst has been arrested on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Pemberton Township Police Chief David H. Jantas announced.

Donovan Balthazor, 30, of the Browns Mills section of Pemberton, was charged with two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, including one for possession of child pornography and one for distribution. He was also charged with third-degree knowingly possessing an image depicting the sexual exploitation of a child.

The investigation began when the Prosecutor’s Office High-Tech Crimes Unit recieved intelligence from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children concerning Balthazor’s online activities. Detectives said they learned that Balthazor was in possession of a nude photo of a pre-pubescent girl that he shared online.

Detectives then executed a search warrant at his home on Wednesday, authorities said. Numerous digital devices were seized, and they will be analyzed by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crimes Unit.

Balthazor was arrested on the base by United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations and turned over to the prosecutor’s office. He was released pending trial, but was ordered not to have unsupervised contact with minors and was forbidden from accessing the Internet unless it is on a government computer for work purposes. The case will now be prepared for presentation to a Burlington County Grand Jury to be considered for indictment.

The case was investigated by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office’s High-Tech Crimes Unit, with assistance from the New Jersey State Police, Pemberton Township Police Department, United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations and United States Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. The lead investigator was Burlington County Detective Sergeant Dave Kohler, supervisor of the High-Tech Crimes Unit.

The High-Tech Crimes Unit is a member of the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the New Jersey State Police Cyber Terrorism Task Force.

The attached image of Donovan Balthazor was provided by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office