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Gavin Swiatek, 49, a former biochemistry instructor on the Rutgers University Cook Campus in New Brunswick, pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of distributing child pornography in Middlesex County today.
Under his plea agreement, Swiatek will also be banned from public employment ever again.
“Not only did this defendant contribute to the cruel exploitation of children by distributing child pornography, he did it using a university computer that was provided to him as an instructor,” said Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa. “He betrayed the university’s trust, as well as any measure of decency.”
State Police arrested Swiatek at his Hillsborough home Jan. 10. University officials seized his office computer, while NJSP investigators with a search warrant took a laptop and hard drives from the house.
The investigation was led by Detective Paul Sciortino of the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and Deputy Attorney General Kenneth R. Sharpe of the Division of Criminal Justice Computer Analysis & Technology Unit.
Rutgers University police and the university’s Office of Information Technology also provided “valuable assistance,” Chiesa said.
Sentencing was set for Feb. 4, 2013.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy NJSP
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