23°
George M. Silebi, 27, “used the Internet to view, download, and possess items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Jan. 18.
Detectives from Musella’s Cyber Crimes Unit raided the Sheridan Avenue home of former Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi exactly a week earlier.
From there they traveled to Norwalk, Connecticut, and arrested Silebi with help from Norwalk and Connecticut State Police, the prosecutor said.
Silebi – who records show is married -- reportedly posted bail on a fugitive warrant and was released by Norwalk police after processing.
He surrendered to detectives from Musella’s office five days later, on Tuesday, Jan. 16, the prosecutor said.
Silebi was booked into the Bergen County Jail and then released almost immediately afterward, records show.
He awaits court action in Hackensack on child porn possession charges.
Musella thanked several agencies that assisted in the probe and arrest, including Waldwick, Norwalk and New York City police and Connecticut State Police, as well as a number of local police departments -- from Paramus, Hasbrouck Heights, and Washington Township -- who he said participate in his Cyber Crimes Task Force.
Liliana DeAvila-Silebi, who'd been the chief assignment judge in Superior Court in Bergen County for several years, was removed from the bench by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 2019.
The move followed an investigation that found that she’d abused her authority by intervening in a custody dispute involving a former intern in 2015 and then lying about it.
Authorities found that Silebi called Fort Lee police and got them to bring the child from a grandmother to the former intern by claiming the court had ordered it. It hadn’t.
Silebi claimed she’d been on duty in Bergen County at the time when, in fact, she’d already been reassigned to Passaic County by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Elizabeth and receive free news updates.
