A Berks County man is among eight arrested on online child exploitation charges in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Mercer County Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey on Monday announced the arrests of eight people by the office\u2019s Internet Crimes Against Children Task after a four-month investigation:<\/p>\n
Among them was Brandon Lambert, 40, of Temple, who is charged with three counts of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child.<\/p>\n
According to a release from Marbrey:<\/p>\n
The investigation, dubbed Operation Guardian Angel, began in March in anticipation of the increased international and domestic travel associated with the FIFA World Cup and the expected surge of visitors to New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Investigators targeted people using online platforms to engage in unlawful communications and activities involving minors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mercer County Prosecutor\u2019s Office remains committed to protecting children from online exploitation and ensuring that those who seek to victimize minors are held accountable,\u201d Marbrey said. \u201cAs major international events bring increased activity to the region, we will continue to proactively monitor and investigate threats to public safety, particularly those targeting vulnerable populations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The following also were charged:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jose Adolfo Samayoa Ortiz, 51, of Plainfield, N.J., two counts of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kenneth Davis, 66, of East Haven, Conn., two counts of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child and one count of fourth-degree attempted criminal sexual contact.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Erik Gerstenacker, 36, of Hamilton, N.J., one count of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Joseph Nicosia, 72, of Philadelphia, one count of second-degree attempted sexual assault and\u00a0 two counts of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Connor O\u2019Leary, 30, of Moorestown, N.J., one count of second-degree attempted luring or enticing of a child, three counts of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child, and two counts of second-degree attempted sexual assault.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Joseph Nesci, 55, of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., one count of second-degree attempted luring or enticing of a child, one count of second-degree attempted sexual assault, three counts of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child, one count of fourth-degree attempted criminal sexual contact and one count of second-degree attempted aggravated sexual assault.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Richard Dickenson, 48, of Philadelphia, two counts of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Berks County man is among eight arrested on online child exploitation charges in New Jersey. Mercer County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[202,182,139,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-254611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}