Mercer County Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing Child Pornography

A Hamilton Township (Mercer County) man pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced on Thursday.

Celalleti “Steve” Koc, 26, pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of distributing child pornography.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Koc be sentenced to five years in state prison, including 2 ½ years of parole ineligibility. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.

Koc admitted to knowingly using Internet file-sharing software to make files containing child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a designated “shared folder” on an office computer at his business, SK Auto on Kuser Road in Hamilton.

He was one of 28 people arrested in two rounds of sweeps under Operation Predator Alert, a joint operation by the Division of Criminal Justice and ICE Homeland Security Investigations that targeted child pornography offenders in New Jersey.

The investigating agencies executed a search warrant at the business on Oct. 17, 2013, seizing a tower computer and a laptop computer.

They also conducted a search of his apartment, with his consent, and seized a second laptop computer.

A forensic examination of the computers at the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory in Hamilton revealed more than 160 videos of child pornography, including child rape videos, and more than 120 images of child pornography.

He was arrested that day.

“Individuals like Koc who share child pornography online put themselves in league with the predators who rape and sexually exploit children to produce these abhorrent materials, directly motivating their horrific crimes against innocent children,” Hoffman said. “Everyone who joins that deviant network is guilty of cruelly victimizing and re-victimizing vulnerable children, and they belong behind bars.”

“We want every offender who trolls the Internet for child pornography to know that we in law enforcement also are out there in cyberspace, and we’re trolling for them,” Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice, said. “We have the technology to catch those who share these odious materials, and we’re determined to send them to prison.”

“Child predators rob children of their youth and innocence. One child victimized by a pedophile is one too many,” Andrew M. McLees, Special Agent in Charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Newark, said. “This joint effort with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice is a clear indication of HSI’s resolve to seek out those who sexually exploit innocent children.”

Authorities began monitoring an online file-sharing network in June of 2013 that was heavily trafficked by users downloading and sharing child pornography.

In October, 14 people were arrested, including Koc.

Another round of arrests in July of this year brought in another 14.

Koc’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 9.

The attached image of Celalleti “Steve” Koc was provided by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.