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A Monmouth County grand jury this week returned indictments against two defendants charged with crimes involving distribution and/or possession of child sexual abuse materials, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey said.
Indicted on Tuesday were:
Jonathan W. Cruz, 38, of Aberdeen and Neil Ridgway, 58, of Howell.
Cruz originally was arrested in January 2020 on charges of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Ridgway was arrested in April 2019 on third-degree endangering charges for possessing child abuse materials.
Indicted earlier this fall on endangering charges involving child pornography, according to the prosecutor, were:
- Michael Pipitone, 39, of Middletown;
- Charles Hoagland, 57, of Hazlet;
- David Eidman, 53, of Long Branch;
- Carl Aliwalas, 29, of Neptune Township;
- John Coluzzi, 33, of Manalapan, and;
- Marvin Diaz, 35, of Howell,
Additionally, earlier this fall, 40-year-old Kenneth Megill of Wall Township, was indicted on charges of third-degree attempted endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree attempted obscenity to a minor for allegedly engaging in inappropriate conversations with and attempting to show inappropriate materials to a juvenile, Linskey said.
Investigations into the actions of these defendants were conducted by members of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, working with local police in the jurisdictions in which the crimes allegedly took place.
Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie Dugan is handling the above cases.
The Monmouth County ICAC Task Force includes members of the following police departments: Bradley Beach, Eatontown, Howell, Long Branch, Manalapan, Marlboro, Middletown, Neptune Township, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, Tinton
Falls, Keyport, Keansburg, Belmar, Holmdel and Red Bank, Linskey said.
The Task Force also receives investigative support from the New Jersey State Police High Tech Crime Bureau.
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