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Robert Lisicki, 51, of Metuchen didn’t realize the person he’d been communicating with on social media was actually an undercover detective, Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.
Lisicki planned meeting the “boy” for sex, even discussing the things he’d planned do to, Bruck said.
Detectives who were waiting arrested Lisicki when he arrived at the planned location in Toms River, the attorney general said.
The arrest was part of a sweep dubbed “Operation Open House,” a multi-agency undercover operation that produced the arrests of 24 men who Bruck said were trolling social media seeking to lure girl and boys into sex with them.
Lisicki took a deal from prosecutors rather than risk trial, pleading guilty in July to luring.
He’ll be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will remain under lifetime parole supervision after serving his sentence, secured by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Rastelli, Bruck said.
The sentence sent a message, he said: “If you prey on children, you will go to prison.”
State Division of Criminal Justice Director Lyndsay V. Ruotolo urged parents and guardians to “remember that social media creates potential opportunities for those who prey on children.”
She urged them to “remain vigilant regarding their children’s online activities, just as law enforcement is remaining vigilant with our proactive investigations.”
In addition to investigating cyber tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, members of the State Police and Ruotolo’s office “routinely conduct undercover chat investigations on social media platforms leading to arrests of hands-on offenders and defendants seeking to lure children,” Bruck noted.
“They also conduct proactive investigations to apprehend offenders by monitoring peer-to-peer file-sharing networks and identifying the IP addresses of individuals sharing child sexual abuse material,” the attorney general said.
He and Ruotolo urged anyone with information about online child porn trafficking or suspected improper contact by pedophiles with their children to contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force tipline: 888-648-6007.
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