Monmouth County Porn Operation: NJIT Professor, 13 Others Busted

A summer-long operation focused on online consumers of child pornography resulted in the arrest of 14 people during “Operation School’s Out,” authorities announced Friday.

Among those arrested is a college professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a retired computer scientist who previously held federal government contracts and an electronics technician, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

The operation was carried out by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Computer Crimes Unit and Monmouth County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force between July 20 and Aug. 31, according to the MCPO.

Operation School’s Out was designed to reduce online threats to Monmouth County children during one of their most vulnerable times – summer vacation – and to decrease the market for child sexual exploitation by focusing on those individuals seeking out and trafficking in child pornographic materials, according to the MCPO.

“It is incumbent on everyone, particularly those of us in law enforcement, to protect children from harm and exploitation. To that end, Operation School’s Out caught individuals who shamelessly viewed and shared depraved images of children being sexually abused,” Gramiccioni said.

The following individuals were arrested as a result of Operation School’s Out:

• John G. Fenton, 55, of Port Monmouth Road in Middletown, a commercial oil delivery driver, was arrested on Aug. 4 following the investigation of a CyberTip forwarded by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which revealed he uploaded child pornography images to Chatstep.

• Henry Gavilanez, 27, Monmouth Place in Long Branch, an unemployed insurance salesman, was arrested on Aug. 31, following an investigation which revealed that he used peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software to make child pornography images and videos available to others online.

• Emir Gomez, 18, of Route 35 in Eatontown, a landscaper, was arrested on Aug. 17 following the investigation of a NCMEC CyberTip, which revealed he maintained images and videos of child pornography in his Dropbox cloud storage account to which he provided others with access.

• Paul King, 62, of Ocean Avenue in Belmar, a professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, was arrested on Aug. 16 following an investigation, which revealed he used P2P file-sharing software to make child pornography images and videos available to others online.

• Douglas Masto, 70, of Quaker Street in Wall, a self-employed business manager, was arrested on Aug. 10 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to make child pornography images and videos available to others online.

• Terrance McCuen, 53, of North Ditmar Drive in the Wanamassa section of Ocean Township, a construction site superintendent, was arrested on Aug. 2 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to make child pornography images and videos available to others online. McCuen was charged with one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child (distribution of child pornography). McCuen was also charged with disorderly persons possession of less than 50 grams of marijuana. McCuen is represented by Michael Pappa of Hazlet.

• Alan Raczek, 27, of Meadow Drive in Tinton Falls, a grocery store cashier, was arrested on July 28 following an investigation, which revealed he possessed numerous items of child pornography.

• Rodrigo Roldan, 65, of Coral Way in Neptune Township, a retiree who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Colombia, was arrested on July 20 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to make child pornography images and videos available to others online.

• Eric C. Scherzer, 38, of Benton Avenue, of the Leonardo section of Middletown, an electronics technician, was arrested on Aug. 23 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to make child pornography images and videos available to others online.

• James Simmons, 69, of Harding Road in Freehold Township, a retired computer scientist and former federal government contractor, was arrested on July 26 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to make child pornography images and videos available to others online.

• Frederick Simzer, 30, of Monique Circle, in Hazlet, a swimming pool maintenance worker, was arrested on Aug. 18 following the investigation of a NCMEC CyberTip, which revealed that he maintained images and videos of child pornography in the cloud storage account associated with his cellular phone service.

• Jude I. Taylor, 38, of Bridge Avenue, Red Bank, a landscaper, was arrested on July 25 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to download child pornography images and videos.

• Martin Velazquez-Rodriguez, 52, of 1st Avenue in Asbury Park, a factory worker, was arrested on Aug. 30 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to download child pornography videos.

• Dale E. Williams, Jr., 46, of Leonard Avenue in Middletown, a construction worker, was arrested on July 21 following an investigation, which revealed that he used P2P file-sharing software to download child pornography images and videos.

All the defendants were released on the conditions that they have no unsupervised contact with children younger than the age of 18 and not use the internet. Roldan has the added conditions of surrendering his passport and reporting bi-weekly to a court officer.

If convicted of the second-degree endangering charge, a defendant will face a maximum sentence of 10 years in New Jersey state prison, Megan’s Law and parole supervision for life. If convicted of the third- degree endangering charge, a defendant will face a maximum sentence of five years in state prison and parole supervision for life.

All the cases are assigned to Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Margaret C. Koping, with the exception of the Fenton case, which is assigned to Assistant Prosecutor Martha Nye.

“Our successful operation demonstrates the value of our partnerships with the local law enforcement agencies that help our ICAC Task Force continue to have a vigilant and watchful eye for this extremely damaging criminal activity," said Gramiccioni.

MCPO photo