65-year-old Sussex County, NJ, man admits distribution of child porn

Federal authorities say a man from North Jersey has admitted sharing child porn pictures and videos online.

65-year-old Gaetano Lapegna of Franklin, Sussex County, pleaded guilty on March 5th to one count of distribution of child pornography.

According to officials, from December 2022 to March 2023, Lapegna distributed child porn videos and images via a publicly available online peer-to-peer file-sharing program.

During the course of an investigation, an undercover law enforcement officer conducted online sessions using that P2P program, during which a user shared hundreds of child porn files from an IP address traced to Lapegna’s address.

Following a search of his home on March 30th of last year, law enforcement officers recovered over 100 items depicting child pornography on a thumb drive.

Authorities also found that his computer was running the same version of the P2P program from which law enforcement downloaded child pornography from Lapegna.

The count of distribution of child pornography potentially carries a five to 20 year prison sentence with a $250,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 23rd.

U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger thanked Homeland Security Investigations-Newark, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Franklin Borough Police Department for their assistance in this case.