Bergen County law enforcement officials continue their efforts to make
arrests and obtain convictions against those accused of
sex crimes.
A recent case involved a New York man who was sentenced to 66 months in
prison after he reached a plea bargain with prosecutors on allegations
that he had tried to arrange a meeting to have sex with a six-year-old girl.
The defendant never had any contact with a six-year-old girl, but he did
apparently have contact with an undercover police officer pretending online
to be the mother of a six-year-old.
A Superior Court judge said the man's prior convictions played a role
in her deliberations on what she considered to be an appropriate sentence for him.
She said had he gone to trial and been found guilty, he would have faced
"considerable time" behind bars.
The man reportedly admitted trying to meet "Maria," the name
used by the undercover officer pretending to be a mother of a young girl,
"Angie."
The Bergen County prosecutor said the man "exposed himself to the
purported child and made arrangements to meet the child for the purpose
of having sexual relations."
Meetings between the man and the "mother" and her "child"
were allegedly set up in Ramsey and Paramus in June of last year. About
a week later, the county's Computer Crimes Task Force took the man
into custody.
He will serve his time at the high-security Adult Diagnostic and Treatment
Center in Avenel, about 30 miles south of Englewood.
He's required under the terms of the No Early Release Act to serve a minimum of 56 months of the 66-month sentence.
Source: Cliffview Pilot, "66 months for Queens ex-con who tried to meet Bergen girl, 6, for sex," Mary K. Miraglia, June 22, 2012