LAKEWOOD, NJ — A registered sex offender living in Lakewood has been charged with creating and distributing child pornography following an investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.
Samuel Schwinger, 34, of Lakewood, was arrested Friday, Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said. Schwinger was arrested following an investigation that started in Oklahoma after the parents of a young girl contacted the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Department saying their daughter had been contacted by someone in New Jersey posing as a young girl asking her to send explicit videos of herself.
Oklahoma authorities traced the request to a phone number and account registered to Schwinger, Billhimer said. A search warrant was obtained and executed Friday evening at Schwinger’s residence in Lakewood, he said.
Schwinger was serving 10 years probation in connection with a sexual assault in New York, Billhimer said, and following the investigation was charged with possession of marijuana along with production of images/videos of children under the age of 16 engaged in prohibited sexual acts, distribution of images/videos of children under the age of 16 engaged in prohibited sexual acts, and possession of of images/videos of children under the age of 16 engaged in prohibited sexual acts.
Schwinger is being held at the Ocean County Jail, the prosecutor's office said.
"Prosecutor Billhimer would like to thank the swift work of the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Department, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Computer Crimes Unit, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Megan’s Law Unit, Lakewood Police Department, New Jersey State Police and United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations," the prosecutor's office said.
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