Ex-Firefighter Who Groped Kids in Middlesex County Sentenced

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A former volunteer firefighter and volunteer Franklin Twp. fire commissioner who police say groped women and children in towns ranging from Edison to Highland Park, New Brunswick and North Brunswick was sentenced Friday to seventeen years in state prison.

Thomas Canales, 39, of Franklin Township, was sentenced Friday, May 11 to 17 ½ years in a New Jersey state prison for the sexual crimes he committed in multiple jurisdictions. He was found guilty on Jan. 2 of this year for the following four incidents:

• A 32-year-old woman said he improperly touched her at a playground in an unnamed Edison apartment complex on August 25, 2016.
• Prosecutors say Canales exposed himself to a seven-year-old girl in New Brunswick on July 3, 2016.
• He was also charged with exposing himself to an 11-year-old girl in North Brunswick on April 19, 2016.
• He was charged with improperly touching a 11-year-old girl in Highland Park on August 28, 2016

Canales has been charged with sexually assaulting children before, but was acquitted: In 2013, he was charged with sexually assaulting two young girls over a five-year period. One of the girls said the abuse started at a camp ground in New York when she was 10 years old. Later, she said she was visiting his home in Franklin Township and said she wasn't feeling well; Canales offered her cough syrup, NJ.com reported.

When she became drowsy and was drifting in and out of consciousness, Canales sexually assaulted her, she said.

However, in January of 2016, a jury found him not guilty in those two instances. Canales and his wife, Teresa, wept in court that day.

"I'm completely thrilled and thankful to the jurors, who did the right thing," his defense attorney, James Wronko, told NJ.com at the time, after his client was found not guilty. "I'm also saddened Mr. Canales had to be put through this. I can give him his freedom, I can give him back his good name, but I can't give him back what he and his family has endured since September 2013 when these allegations were made. It took part of his heart out. I can't fix that."

However, Canales was arrested anew later that same year, after the above four victims from throughout Middlesex County came forward with new allegations. Less than a year after he was acquitted, he was arrested on Sept. 1, 2016 at his home in Somerset.

A Middlesex County jury found him guilty for all the new charges on January 2 of this year. He, or anyone else on his behalf, is prohibited from ever contacting his four victims again.

Canales worked as a computer repairman, and served as a volunteer firefighter and fire commissioner in Franklin Township. His computer repair company is called "Scope It Out," which he ran out of his home. He is still facing criminal charges in a separate case in which prosecutors say he installed a surveillance system in a client's home and then watched what went on in the home through his computer and cell phone.

He will have to register as a Megan's Law sex offender and also be placed on Parole Supervision for Life upon his release from prison. Sixteen years of his sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act. As such, Canales will have to serve 85 percent of that term before he can be released on parole.

Canales served as a commissioner for the volunteer Franklin Township Fire District 3 between 2011 and 2012.

Past Patch reporting on Thomas Canales: Man Found Guilty Of Groping Edison Woman On Playground

Photo of Canales provided by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office