Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that a state grand jury has indicted a Union County man who allegedly distributed explicit images of minors through his Twitter account and possessed more than 325,000 images and videos of explicit images of minors on his computer equipment, including numerous child rape videos.
The Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau yesterday obtained a state grand jury indictment charging Charles Diggs, 36, of Roselle, with second-degree distribution of explicit images of minors and third-degree possession of more than 100 files of explicit images of minors. The charges are the result of an investigation by the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit (DTIU), the Division of Criminal Justice, the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office and other members of the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
The investigation began when the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding a Twitter account that allegedly was uploading explicit images of minors. Detectives from the prosecutor’s office and the New Jersey State Police DTIU traced the Twitter account to Diggs and identified 12 images of explicit images of minors that Diggs allegedly had distributed via the Twitter account. Diggs was arrested on Sept. 3, 2016 when the New Jersey State Police and other members of the ICAC Task Force executed a search warrant at his home in Roselle, seizing five computers and numerous hard drives. A full forensic examination of the computer equipment at the Regional Forensic Computer Laboratory in Hamilton allegedly revealed more than 325,000 files of explicit images of minors, including more than 14,000 videos, many of them depicting the rape of very young children.
Deputy Attorney General Lilianne Daniel presented the indictment to the state grand jury for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau. Attorney General Porrino commended the detectives who investigated the case for the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the other members of the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force who assisted.
Second-degree crimes carry a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000, while third-degree crimes carry a sentence of three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.
The third-degree charge of possession of 100 or more computer files of explicit images of minors carries a presumption that the defendant will face a state prison term of between three to five years, even if the defendant has no prior criminal record.
The indictment was handed up to Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier in Mercer County, who assigned the case to Union County, where Diggs will be ordered to appear at a later date for arraignment.