A South Jersey man who was the focus of an NJ Advance Media investigation last year after he was mistakenly left off New Jersey’s sex offender registry was arrested Friday for a fourth time on charges of endangering children.
Joseph Catrambone, a former gymnastics coach and a three-time convicted sex offender, attempted to meet with an underage boy to engage in sexual conduct after chatting online, Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay said Friday.
Catrambone, 38, was charged on Jan. 7 with first-degree attempted manufacturing of child sexual abuse material.
He also faces second-degree charges of attempted luring of a child and attempted sexual assault of a minor, third-degree charges of attempted child endangerment and attempting to send obscene material to a minor and a fourth-degree charge of attempted criminal sexual contact with a minor.
Catrambone intended to sexually assault someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy after chatting online, authorities said.
Catrambone was the focus of an NJ Advance Media investigation last year after reporters discovered his name did not appear in the state’s public sex offenders registry until June 4. That day, his name appeared as a Tier 2, moderate risk offender, after nearly a dozen inquiries about his status were made to state police and county officials by NJ Advance Media.
In June, Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office chief of detectives Thomas Gilbert, who also serves as the office’s spokesman, said that “subsequent to [NJ Advance Media’s] inquiry regarding this individual … we were able to identify a data entry error that resulted in him not appearing on the public facing aspect of the database. As a result of you bringing this to our attention, that data entry was corrected.”
Catrambone had evaded the registry despite a 2017 conviction for endangering the welfare of a child, nine months in jail and then another arrest five months after his release on child pornography charges, NJ Advance Media’s investigation revealed.
Catrambone’s attorney, Vincent Campo, did not immediately return a phone message Friday seeking comment.
Catrambone, 38, was released from state prison in February 2022.
On Jan. 7, Catrambone began to chat online with an undercover detective from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crimes Unit, according to authorities. He then sent an explicit photo of himself, requested that the child send explicit photos to him and expressed his desire to engage in sexual acts with the child, police said.
Police arrested Catrambone after he arranged to meet the child at a specific location in Collingswood to engage in sexual activity. He was remanded to Camden County Correctional Facility and is scheduled to appear in Camden County Superior Court Jan. 21.
Catrambone’s troubles with the law began in 2017, when he was accused of sexually assaulting two young students at Atlantic Coast Gymnastics in Monroe Township, Gloucester County.
One claimed Catrambone massaged her buttocks and the other said he touched her genitals over her clothing on multiple occasions. The second child also recounted an incident in which Catrambone allegedly grew angry with her, pulled her hair and pushed her, causing the girl to fall and strike her head.
He was originally charged with sex assault, endangering the welfare of a child and simple assault, but ended up pleading guilty to a single third-degree endangering charge.
He was sentenced in 2017 to 364 days in county jail and two years’ probation.
Catrambone was then charged in 2018 with trying to meet someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy for sex in Camden County. The “teen” he was talking to over social media was an undercover cop.
He pleaded guilty to a third-degree charge of criminal attempt/endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced in 2019 to five years in state prison. Catrambone was also sentenced to a concurrent three-year term for violating the terms of his probation in the first case.
In addition, he was ordered to register as a sex offender and sentenced to parole supervision for life.
In 2021, while still behind bars, Catrambone was sentenced in his third case, which involved two more victims who stepped forward in 2020 to say he abused them at Atlantic Coast Gymnastics in 2017 when they were 11 to 12 years old.
He was charged with multiple counts of sexual contact and endangering, but pleaded guilty to a third-degree count of endangering/sexual conduct with a child by a non-caretaker. The plea deal included no additional jail time.
In June 2024, Catrambone, along with Atlantic Coast Gymnastics, was sued by one of his alleged victims from his 2017 case.
The plaintiff, now an adult, alleges in the lawsuit they sustained “severe and permanent injuries, including pain, suffering, emotional and psychological trauma and humiliation.”
In June, a default judgment was requested after the victim’s attorneys claimed Catrambone failed to respond to the lawsuit’s allegations. The lawsuit remains in litigation, with a case-status hearing scheduled in March.
NJ Advance Media staff writer Matt Gray contributed to this report.