State Trooper In Moorestown Arrested On Child Porn Charges: Cops

MOORESTOWN, NJ — A New Jersey State Trooper stationed in Moorestown has been arrested after she received sexually explicit images of an underage girl from another trooper and failed to report it, authorities announced.

Andrea V. Knox, 35 of Mt. Holly, received the images from 48-year-old Jeffrey Reitz, of Williamstown, during an exchange of sexually explicit text messages with Reitz about an underage girl in 2018, according to Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

Authorities said Knox asked Reitz about sexual acts he would like to perform on the girl on Aug. 27, 2018. The next day, Reitz sent Knox pictures of people at a nudist location, authorities said. Two of the people were young girls, and their genitals were visible, authorities said.

Knox didn’t report receiving the photos "despite her duty as a police officer to uphold and enforce the law," authorities said. She was arrested on Tuesday and charged with second-degree official misconduct and third-degree possession of child pornography. She has been suspended by New Jersey State Police.

In December, Reitz was indicted on two counts of third-degree child pornography related to exchanges of text messages with another woman, authorities said. In that instance, the woman sent Reitz a sexually explicit picture of a girl and encouraged him to sexually assault her, authorities said. Read more here: NJ State Trooper Indicted, Plotted To Sexually Assault Girl: AG

Detectives said they found more images of child pornography in an iCloud account that belonged to Reitz. His exchange with Knox was found during further investigation of the iCloud account.

Second-degree charges carry a sentence of five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000, while third-degree charges carry a sentence of three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.