Ex-Ranney School Camp Counselor Pleads Guilty In Child Porn Case

TRENTON, NJ — A Red Bank man has pleaded guilty to downloading sexually explicit videos and images of children to his home computer, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced Monday.

James Paroline, 27, of Red Bank, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court to one count of receiving child pornography, Fishman's office said. Under the plea agreement, a second count of possession of child pornography will be dropped as long as Paroline adheres to the agreement.

Paroline, who worked at the Ranney School in Tinton Falls as a summer camp counselor and also worked as an assistant at an unnamed nursery school, was arrested in July 2015 on the charges. He worked at the Ranney School as a camp counselor for 10 summers, Head of School John Griffith confirmed in 2015, following Paroline's arrest. The Ranney School was not named in court documents.

Between Feb. 26, 2015, and March 2, 2015, Paroline accessed a website known as “PlayPen,” an underground online bulletin board and website dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography, Fishman's office said. During that period, Paroline logged into PlayPen under the username “jimbobtropolis,” which he had registered with PlayPen using his personal email address, and downloaded multiple videos and images depicting the sexual abuse of children from the website, prosecutors said.

More than 600 images were recovered, prosecutors said, of children as young as 2 years old. Many of the images portrayed "sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence," according to the plea agreement.

The count to which Paroline pleaded guilty carries a mandatory minimum term of five years in prison, a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Fishman's office said. Sentencing is scheduled for June 1.

The criminal complaint made public after Paroline's July 2015 arrest said that after he waived his Miranda rights, he admitted to police that had inappropriately touched children.

He was not charged with a crime related to touching children, and U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Matthew Reilly said Monday that he did not admit to touching children during his plea hearing on Monday.

Image via Shutterstock