West Long Branch Man Indicted On Child Porn, Drug Charges

WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – A Monmouth County grand jury has returned a three-count indictment against a 51-year-old West Long Branch man on charges including cocaine possession, having child sexual abuse files stored on a cloud drive connected with his email address, and videotaping himself while masturbating in a local park, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Friday.

Michael K. Russo was officially charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child via Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material in the third degree, Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance in the third degree, and Lewdness in the fourth degree.

If convicted of these charges, Russo could face up to five years in state prison, as well registration as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and parole supervision for life.

Russo was one of many arrests that came as the result of a series of investigations led by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Computer Crimes Unit and the Monmouth County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The task force received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), showing that Russo had uploaded several dozen digital child sexual abuse material files to his Google Drive over about nine months in 2019.

The investigation also discovered that Russo allegedly exposed himself while at a public park in Asbury Park on or around July 25, 2019.

This case is assigned to Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie Dugan and Russo is being represented by Joshua Hood, Esq., with an office in Freehold.

Anyone with information about Russo’s activities is being asked to contact MCPO Detective Michael Arduini at 1-800-533-7443.