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A convicted sex offender from Bergen County who was released earlier this year after serving less than two years for exchanging nude photos with children moved into a Route 17 motel and was right back at it in no time, authorities said Friday.
Frank Cirino, 69, has a history of similar behavior dating back to 2007.
In one instance, Bergen County detectives said they caught him posing as a 14-year-old female online to exchange graphic photos with underage girls. Paramus police said he was viewing similar images in his car the following year while parked at the Fashion Center on Route 17.
Cirino was arrested again in late 2020 by county prosecutor's detectives who said that he posed as both a teenage boy and girl to have sexually explicit chats with minors who sent him more images.
Cirino had downloaded 1,000 digital files of “nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children” and shared 25 of them with various youngsters before he was caught, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said at the time.
SEE: Prosecutor: Did Your Kid Communicate With Bergen Man, 67, Who Exchanged Nude Photos?
CIrino managed to cut a deal with Musella's staff. Pleading guilty to lesser charges, the registered repeat sex offender secured a maximum sentence of just three years in June 2021.
Cirinon ended up serving only 19 months before being released this past Jan. 3 from the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, a maximum-security facility designed to treat sex offenders, records show.
Cirino, formerly of Rutherford, then moved into the Fair Motel on Route 17 in Upper Saddle River.
On Friday, June 23, Musella announced that Cirino had been arrested again.
Detectives who raided the motel room found that Cirino "used the Internet to view, download, possess, and distribute items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children," the prosecutor said.
He also once again "engaged in sexual conversations with other Internet users whom he believed to be underage," Musella said.
Given the circumstances, Cirino is expected to remain held in the Bergen County Jail as the case against him proceeds. He's charged with with possession and distribution of child pornography and attempted child endangerment.
Meanwhile, Musella urged parents or guardians to call his office's anonymous tips line if they discover that their child received inappropriate communications o social media from "Jack Ridge" or "CassieNJ." The tips line number is (201) 226-5532.
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