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It’s now the second time, records show, that 51-year-old Jayme Shannon of East Brunswick is being charged, under what is known as the Mann Act, on charges of transporting a victim across state lines in order to commit a crime.
Shannon met the teen in the “Chatavenue.com” chat room, according to a federal complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark. They communicated for several weeks before he arranged the rendezvous at the Skyview Motel on Route 4, it alleges.
Jayme Shannon
(MUGSHOT: Courtesy BCPO)
After renting the room, Shannon drove to New York on Oct. 14, picked up the boy and brought him to the hotel “for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct,” the complaint says.
Officers saw Shannon pull into the motel parking lot and then go inside with the boy, A law enforcement source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.
After discovering Shannon’s identity from the hotel clerk, police did a background check and found an outstanding warrant for his arrest out of Somerset County, the source said.
Concerned for the boy’s safety, they knocked on the door of Room 110. When there was no answer, they went in — and found the teenager naked and hiding in the bathroom, the source said.
Shannon, who is married and operates his own limousine service, was immediately taken into custody on the warrant, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli confirmed at the time. He was charged with sexual assault and child endangerment and ordered held on $275,000 bail.
Shannon spent more than three months in the Bergen County Jail before posting a reduced $200,000 bail on Jan. 29, records show.
Shannon already had a federal arrest record for traveling across state lines to have sex with a juvenile. This time he was arrested at at an East Windsor residence yesterday morning on charges of interstate transportation of a minor for illicit purposes. A federal judge, in turn, ordered him held without bond.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman credited the FBI, Molinelli’s office and Fort Lee police for the investigation leading to yesterday’s arrest. Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Hafetz of the U.S. Attorney’s General Crimes Unit in Newark.
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