Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that an Ocean County man pleaded guilty today to distributing explicit images of minors online. He was arrested last year with 39 other offenders in “Operation Statewide,” a sweep by the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which includes the New Jersey State Police, Division of Criminal Justice, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and numerous state, county and local law enforcement agencies.
Bruce Davis, 55, of Whiting, pleaded guilty to second-degree distribution of explicit images of minors before Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter in Ocean County.
Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Davis be sentenced to five years in state prison, including 2 ½ years of parole ineligibility. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life. Judge Baxter scheduled sentencing for Davis for Oct. 11.
In pleading guilty, Davis admitted that he knowingly used file-sharing software to make multiple explicit images of minors readily available for any other user to download from a “shared folder” on his computer. While monitoring a peer-to-peer file-sharing network popular with sex offenders, a detective of the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit (DTIU) downloaded nearly 100 suspected videos and explicit images of minors from shared folders at two computer IP addresses that were traced to Davis.
Davis was arrested on Aug. 15, 2016 when members of the State Police DTIU executed a search warrant at his home and seized several devices, including a laptop computer. Davis was actively using the laptop to download explicit images of minors from the file-sharing network when detectives arrived.
A forensic exam of the laptop revealed more than 100 files of explicit images of minors, including more than 25 files that were in a shared folder available for other network users to download.
Operation Statewide was a multi-agency sweep coordinated by the New Jersey State Police, as lead agency for the New Jersey ICAC Task Force, which led to arrests of 40 men last year, including defendants in every county of New Jersey.
Attorney General Porrino and Director Honig urged anyone with information about distribution of explicit images of minors 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 888-648-6007.