By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton animal control officer Nate Barson was arrested Monday on charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy in a park in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in early February., Barson, 29, allegedly had the encounter Feb. 3 at 6:27 p.m. inside a pickup truck that is registered to his private animal control business, Animal Control & Investigative Services, based in Hunterdon County, claimed Solebury Township Police, Pennsylvania., The arrest came after the boy, accompanied by his parents, went to police to report what had happened involving him and a man that the boy knew as “Jake.”, Police said the victim’s mother managed to get a license plate number of the pickup and trace it back to Barson’s business, on Goat Hill Road in West Amwell Township, where Barson resides., In an affidavit, the police detective handling the case wrote that he determined that the “Snap Chat account that the victim identified as being the person with whom he had met at Pat Livezey Park is registered to the email address of the defendant Saul ‘Nate’ Barson.”, In addition to sexual assault, Barson is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, corruption of minors and criminal use of a communication facility, police said. Barson was arraigned by district court judge and put in Bucks County Prison, held on bail set at 10 percent of $300,000, police said., He was suspended without pay, town administrator Marc D. Dashield said Monday. He has worked for the municipality since July 2015. His salary was not immediately available., Mayor Liz Lempert, who spoke to a Pennsylvania newspaper about the story, did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment Monday., The town became aware of the arrest after Solebury Police contacted Princeton Police, Dashield said., In a statement, Solebury Police urged parents to monitor computers and other electronic devices connected to the Internet., “We urge families to learn more about sexual exploitation of children via the use of the internet,” the statement read in part. “The increase of this type of exploitation takes place on the dark side of the Internet, via websites, social media applications, message boards, e-mail, file sharing and in real time with web cams, smart phone cameras and streaming videos.”, Police asked anyone who had contact with Barson to call them at 215-348-7400.
