Keansburg Man Indicted, Asked 14-Year-Old For Explicit Pics: AG

KEANSBURG, NJ - A Monmouth County man was indicted Wednesday in connection with the extortion and manipulation of a 14-year-old girl from Louisiana who he allegedly forced to send explicit pictures of, authorities said.

Jason Berry, 41, has been charged with manufacturing child sexual abuse material, aggravated sexual assault, extortion, distribution of child sexual material, possession of child sexual abuse material (100 or more items), promoting obscene material to a person under 18 and impairing/debauching the morals of a child.

Berry was arrested in June 2020 as part of a massive statewide child porn sting dubbed “Operation Screen Capture” conducted by the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit. State Police and the attorney general say incidents of online child sex abuse and online child luring dramatically increased during the COVID lockdown, as more teens, children and adults were online. A total of 21 defendants were charged in the operation, including men from Aberdeen and Union Beach.

Police say Berry first met the 14-year-old Louisiana girl on Snapchat. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal described the teen as "vulnerable" and said it only took Berry "a very short period of time, a few weeks" to allegedly convince her to send him naked pictures of herself engaging in various sex acts, with Berry allegedly threatening to harm her and her family if she did not comply with his demands.

Police say he then convinced the girl to carve his initials into her legs and tricked the girl into revealing her mother's phone number. He then sent nude images to her mother, all to humiliate her, police said.

“This case starkly illustrates the dangers of social media and the need for parents to warn their children about these dangers,” said Grewal in a statement. “The victim in this case thought Berry was another teenager seeking a friend. However, we allege that his friendly advances quickly turned into intimidation and extortion. I commend the New Jersey State Police, the Division of Criminal Justice, and our out-of-state partners for this investigation. We will continue to make child protection a top priority and aggressively investigate online predators.”

Berry is currently detained in the Monmouth County Jail pending trial.

With reporting by Carly Baldwin.