Florham Park Man Sentenced For Luring 'Girl'

A Florham Park man has been sentenced to five years flat time in state prison after previously pleading guilty to arranging a sexual encounter with an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl, Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor James P. McClain announced on Thursday.

Stephen Bubniak, 56, believed he was communicating with a teenage girl he met online, but that person was, in reality, an undercover detective with the prosecutor's office, according to McClain.

Bubniak plead guilty to second-degree attempted luring and third-degree attempted endangering on Oct. 17, 2011, McClain said.

Bubniak began engaging in online conversations with the detective he believed to be a teenage girl in January of 2011, and arranged for an encounter to take place at a hotel room in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, on Feb. 3, 2011, McClain said.

Upon his arrival, Bubniak was arrested by detectives and lodged in the Atlantic County Justice Facility on $250,000 bail, McClain said. Further investigations showed Bubniak had another encounter scheduled for the following day that was to be with what Bubniak believed was a 13-year-old girl, but was also a detective, McClain said. He said Bubniak was charged with that crime on Feb. 7.

According to Janet Gravitz, who represented the state in the case, an investigation of the hotel turned up gift cards Bubniak promised to buy for the undercover detectives, McClain said.