Child Porn Indictment Served to Hackettstown Sex Offender

A Hackettstown man was indicted Friday in federal court on charges of distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Kevin Rease, 33, a registered sex offender and employee of a Paterson law firm, was charged on two counts of distribution and one count of possession of images of child sex abuse, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Rease was charged last month with one count of distributing images of child sex abuse over the Internet and has been held in federal custody since.

Since he is a previously registered sex offender, Fishman said Rease faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison or maximum penalty of 40 years in prison if convicted in addition to a possible fine of $250,000 per count. Rease could also face a mandatory 10-to-20-year prison sentence and $250,000 on the possession charge if convicted. Rease will be arraigned at a date yet to be determined.

On March 12, 2013, an undercover investigator downloaded child pornography that was posted through a peer-to-peer file sharing network from an IP address linked to the law office Rease was working at, according to a release from Fishman's office. The pornographic material "involved prepubescent minors," Fishman said.

A search warrant was issued in April and authorities found that Rease was logged into a work computer in the office under the same name used to distribute the images to the undercover detective, Fishman said.

Special agents of the FBI Newark Division's Child Exploitation Task Force assisted with the investigation.