Prosecutor: Horse trainer preyed on teen, traded explicit photos

🚨Horse coach charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old

🚨Months of inappropriate behavior were reported to police

🚨Drugs and ammunition found in the coach's car

WEST MILFORD — A horse trainer and riding coach who works at several stables around the area was charged with sexually assaulting a teen and exchanging explicit photos.

Troy Roberto, 55, of the Hewitt section of West Milford, began behaving inappropriately with a 16-year-old he coached in December, officials said. It was reported to Mendham Township police in March.

During an interview with police, the victim said they met in the basement of a home or Roberto's Dodge Ram pickup truck parked in the driveway, according to police.

Sexually explicit images that the teen and Roberto exchanged were discovered after a search of the teen's devices, police said.

Roberto was arrested on March 10 in Atlantic County and later transported to the Morris County Correctional Facility. He was found with six Alprazolam pills without a proper prescription and 36 rounds of ammunition in his car during a search.

Charges involve drugs and ammunition

Mendham police described Roberto as "working locally and all around the tri-state area." The names and locations of his employers were not disclosed in a written statement by Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll.

Roberto was charged with three counts of second-degree sexual assault, one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, one count of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child by possession of child sex abuse images, third-degree possession of a drug, and third-degree certain persons not to possess ammunition.

Anyone with information about this investigation should call the Morris County
Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes/Child Endangerment Unit at 973-285-6200.

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