October 29, 10

NEWS / Vineland Man Sentenced to State Prison for Distributing Child Pornography on Internet

TRENTON - Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that a Cumberland County man was sentenced to state prison today for distributing child pornography on the Internet.

According to Director Taylor, Charles Corathers, 53, of Vineland, was sentenced to four years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Benjamin C. Telsey in Cumberland County. Corathers pleaded guilty on May 7 to charges of second-degree distribution of child pornography and fourth-degree possession of child pornography. Those charges were contained in a Dec. 23, 2009 state grand jury indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice.

Corathers was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and is prohibited from having any contact with children or using the Internet for the duration of the sentence.

In pleading guilty, Corathers admitted that between April and August 2009, he knowingly used Internet file sharing software to make multiple files containing child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a designated “shared folder” on his computer.

The Digital Technology Investigation Unit of the New Jersey State Police conducted the investigation. It began with a referral from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, which, during an online operation in April 2009, discovered videos of child pornography available for downloading on Corather’s personal computer. The State Police subsequently connected to Corather’s computer using peer-to-peer software and downloaded additional files of child pornography from his shared folder. The State Police executed a search warrant on Aug. 14, 2009 and seized Corather’s computer. An examination of the computer at the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory revealed numerous files containing child pornography.

Deputy Attorney General Asha Vaghela took the guilty plea and represented the Division of Criminal Justice Major Crimes Bureau at the sentencing.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases10/pr20101029b.html

Tags: police conduct,