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William Harbeson, 82, of Boonton, was released by a federal judge in Newark on $100,000 unsecured bond, with conditions, after being charged by agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations New Jersey Division.
Harberson “distributed videos of child sexual abuse via a publicly available online peer-to-peer file-sharing program,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said on Wednesday, Nov. 23.
What Harberson didn’t realize was that one of those monitoring his activity was an undercover law enforcement officer, the U.S. attorney said.
A warranted search of Haberson’s home turned up at least 38 videos and 351 images of child sexual abuse on his hard drive.
Sellinger credited HSI agents with the investigation leading to the charges. HSI, in turn, thanked Boonton police for their "vital" assistance.
Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Farhana C. Melo of his General Crimes Unit in Newark.
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