Ocean County Man Who Enticed Kids To Make Child Porn Sentenced To Federal Prison

TRENTON, NJ — An Ocean County man who posed as a girl to entice other children to send him sexually explicit videos has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, U.S Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced Tuesday.

Samuel Schwinger, 38, of Lakewood, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Georgette Castner on one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, to which he had pleaded guilty in February 2023 before Castner. It is the maximum sentence under federal guidelines. There is no parole in federal prison.

The count he pleaded guilty to was in connection with a March 2019 incident where he communicated with the girl through an app, asking her to make sexually explicit videos of herself and send them to him, authorities said. Schwinger was serving 10 years of probation for a sexual assault conviction in New York at the time, authorities said.

Read more: Lakewood Man Pleads Guilty To Federal Child Porn Charge

Schwinger was arrested in April 2019 following an investigation by the Ocean County prosecutor's office that started in Oklahoma. The girl's parents contacted the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Department in Oklahoma, saying their daughter had been contacted by someone in New Jersey posing as a young girl and asking their daughter to send explicit videos of herself.

Oklahoma authorities traced the request to a phone number and account registered to Schwinger.

Schwinger admitted that from October 2018 through April 5, 2019, he communicated with more than 25 minor victims for the purpose of producing and distributing sexually explicit material, federal authorities said.

The investigation found hundreds of videos and photos of children under age 16 engaged in sexual activity on Schwinger's phones. He was charged by federal authorities after that.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Castner sentenced Schwinger to 10 years of supervised release and ordered that he register as a sexual offender upon release.

U.S. Sellinger credited special agents Homeland Security Investigations, Cherry Hill, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Alfonso in Newark; the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer; and the Lakewood Police Department under the direction of Chief Gregory Meyer.