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Federal authorities on Thursday charged Charles F. Browne, 52, currently of South River, with uploading images of child sexual abuse to a Dropbox account and “concealing objects to impede the FBI’s investigation,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Officials at Dropbox Inc. alerted them to the images, uploaded to an account with the screen name “Charles Browne” and an email address containing the term “cbrowne,” in September 2017, Carpenito said.
The FBI obtained the uploaded files, which included Browne’s resume along with the images of prepubescent child sexual abuse, the U.S. attorney said.
Investigators approached Browne in April 2019 as he left his then-home in Toms River, after which he dumped the phone and tablet into Kettle Creek, Carpenito said.
Four days later, he said, the Ocean County Sherriff’s Office deployed a drone at the end of the pier that located an “object of interest.”
FBI divers found Browne’s iPad and iPhone, Carpenito said.
“Further review of the recovered devices indicated they had been at Brown’s residence and near a body of water north of Bay Terrace Road,” the U.S. attorney said. “One had been at the location where his car was pulled over.
“The recovered iPad contained videos depicting prepubescent child sexual abuse and emails to and from accounts linked to Browne.”
Carpenito credited special agents with the FBI Newark Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force with the investigation leading to Browne’s arrest.
He also thanked the FBI New York Underwater Search & Evidence Response Team, the FBI Laboratory Division, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Officethe Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, and the Toms River and South River police departments.
Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie L. Hoxie of Carpenito’s Cybercrime Unit in Newark, New Jersey.
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