An Ocean County, New Jersey man was charged today with sexually abusing a
14-month-old boy and streaming footage of the sexual assault over the Internet,
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Rodford W. Brindley, Jr., 67, of Toms River, New Jersey, was arrested and
charged by complaint with one count of
sexual exploitation of a child. He is scheduled today before U.S. Magistrate
Judge Lois Goodman in Trenton federal court.
According to the complaint, law
enforcement in Ohio had previously discovered Brindley through their own
cybercrime investigation and had engaged in online chats with him. On April 2,
2012, Ohio law enforcement was engaged in an online chat with Brindley when he
began sexually assaulting a toddler, recording and sharing the assault over the
Internet using a webcam. Ohio law enforcement determined that Brindley was an
Ocean County, New Jersey resident and immediately contacted New Jersey law
enforcement, which obtained arrest and search warrants.
The charge of child sexual exploitation carries a mandatory minimum penalty
of 15 years in prison, a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison, and a
$250,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Fishman thanked the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department in
Ohio; the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor
Marlene Lynch Ford; and the FBI’s Cyber
Crimes Squad, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward in
Newark, for the investigation leading to today’s arrest.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide
initiative to combat the growing
epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the
Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation
and Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division,
Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better
locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to
identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood,
please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah M. Wolfe of
the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.
The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the
defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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