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Jackson T. Dietrich, 37, appears headed back to state prison for a third time after Bergen County prosecutor's detectives said they found him again viewing online child pornography.
It was his second parole violation in 18 months, records show.
Dietrich was apologetic, telling the judge that he was ashamed for himself and his family, when he was sentenced in November 2014 to five years in prison for trafficking dozens of child porn images (photo above).
A defense attorney asked the judge to suspend lifetime parole for Dietrich, an unemployed former busboy who, the lawyer said, had “too much time on his hands."
An assistant prosecutor argued against the move, insisting that lifetime parole supervision is “the best tool we have for monitoring ongoing illegal activity.”
Dietrich had hundreds of images of children engaged in sexual penetration -- so many that “we literally stopped counting,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Brian Sinclair said at the time.
Although parole supervision for life is at a judge’s discretion, “it is the best tool we have for monitoring ongoing illegal activity,” Sinclair told Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian.
“While Megan’s Law is a very valuable weapon in the arsenal, there are many people in Bergen County living near Megan’s Law offenders," he said, "and they have no idea because only the police have to be notified. The real way to monitor him is parole supervision for life."
Jerejian agreed, sentencing Dietrich to lifetime supervision.
“There is no greater concern that could be expressed by this court than to prevent the sexual exploitation of children depicted in these photos,” the judge said. “Although I understand there was not a victim he had direct contact with, nevertheless, the children in those hundreds of photos are real victims.”
Dietrich, who was living in New Milford at the time, served four years of the five-year sentence before being released in November 2018.
He was returned to prison in April 2019 to complete the final year for violating parole, records show.
Dietrich was released again this past April. He was living in Ridgefield when prosecutor’s detectives armed with a search warrant arrested him again two weeks ago.
Dietrich “used the Internet in violation of his New Jersey parole conditions and viewed digital files depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella explained afterward.
Dietrich remains held in the Bergen County Jail pending a state Parole Board review. Musella’s detectives also charged him with possession of child pornography.
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