Keansburg Man Found Guilty Of Having 1,000+ Child Sex Abuse Images

KEANSBURG, NJ — A Keansburg man has been found guilty for having more than 1,000 images of child sex abuse materials on a computer in his home, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago announced Thursday.

Jose Gabe Veras, 34, was convicted of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child for the possession of more than 1,000 items of child sexual abuse.

Veras was arrested without incident at his home on Manning Place in Keansburg in February 2020 and was indicted in October 2021. His trial before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill O’Malley started this January, and a jury delivered a guilty verdict late Tuesday afternoon of this week.

He will be sentenced May 19 and is facing up to 10 years in state prison.

An investigation by the Monmouth County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, initiated by a tip received through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, revealed that Veras used a cloud storage application to store the child sex images and videos on various electronic devices in his home in Keansburg.

Police say he had these files between July 2019 and February 2020.

Prosecutor Santiago credited Monmouth County assistant prosecutors Joseph Competello and Joshua Carmel with handling the prosecution and securing the conviction.

Veras was represented by lawyer George J. Mardinly, with an office in Red Bank.

The Monmouth County ICAC Task Force includes members of the following police departments: Bradley Beach, Eatontown, Howell, Long Branch, Manalapan, Marlboro, Middletown, Neptune Township, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, Tinton Falls, Keyport, Keansburg, Belmar, Holmdel and Red Bank. The Task Force also receives investigative support from New Jersey State Police.