Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a Mercer County man was sentenced to state prison today for distributing child pornography.
He was one of 28 defendants charged in two offender sweeps under Operation Predator Alert, a joint operation by the Division of Criminal Justice and ICE Homeland Security Investigations that targeted offenders in New Jersey who used an online file-sharing network to download and distribute child pornography, including child rape videos.
Celalletti “Steve” Koc, 27, of Hamilton, was sentenced today to five years in state prison, including 2 ½ years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Timothy P. Lydon in Mercer County. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 6 to a second-degree charge of distributing child pornography. Koc will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. Deputy Attorney General Lilianne Daniel prosecuted Koc for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau.
In pleading guilty, Koc admitted that prior to his arrest on Oct. 17, 2013, he knowingly used Internet file-sharing software to make files containing child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a designated “shared folder” on an office computer at his business, SK Auto on Kuser Road in Hamilton. The investigating agencies executed a search warrant at the business on the day of his arrest, seizing a tower computer and a laptop computer. They also conducted a search of his apartment, with his consent, and seized a second laptop computer. A forensic examination of the computers at the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory in Hamilton revealed more than 160 videos of child pornography, including child rape videos, and more than 120 images of child pornography.
Acting Attorney General Hoffman and Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice urged anyone with information about the distribution of child pornography on the Internet – or about suspected improper contact by unknown persons communicating with children via the Internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children – to please contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 1-888-648-6007.