The Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau today obtained a three-count indictment charging Terrell McSeed, 28, of Belleville, N.J., with second-degree distribution of child pornography, second-degree offering child pornography, and fourth-degree possession of child pornography. McSeed, a train conductor for NJ Transit in Newark, has been suspended without pay from his job since his arrest in 2011.

“As long as offenders continue to create demand for child pornography and to re-victimize children by downloading and sharing these abhorrent images online, we will devote the resources and efforts necessary to detect and aggressively prosecute them,” said Attorney General Chiesa. “We allege that this defendant had numerous explicit videos that he was sharing of children who were sexually assaulted for the gratification of viewers like him.”

“This case, which was referred to the New Jersey State Police by authorities in Pennsylvania, reveals the strong cooperation among law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to apprehend those who distribute child pornography using the Internet,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “The network of offenders who share these vile materials does not stop at state borders, and we won’t be stopped in our pursuit of such criminals.”  

Deputy Attorney General Jillian B. Carpenter presented the case to the state grand jury.

The indictment alleges that between June 28, 2011and Sept. 29, 2011, when he was arrested, McSeed 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. An investigator for the Delaware County, Pa., District Attorney's Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was conducting an undercover investigation into the possession and distribution of child pornography on the Internet on June 28, 2011, when he allegedly downloaded a video file of child pornography from the shared folder on McSeed's computer. After determining that the computer and Internet subscriber were in New Jersey, the Pennsylvania investigator referred the case to the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

On Sept. 29, 2011, the New Jersey State Police executed a search warrant at McSeed’s home and seized his computer. McSeed was arrested the same day at his place of employment in Newark. McSeed allegedly had numerous files containing child pornography on his computer – including explicit videos of sexual assaults against pre-pubescent children – which were available for other Internet users to download using file-sharing software.

Second-degree crimes carry a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000, while fourth-degree crimes carry a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The indictment is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The indictment was handed up to Superior Court Judge Mary C. Jacobson in Mercer County, who assigned the case to Essex County, where McSeed will be arraigned at a later date on the charges.

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