Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that a Bordentown City man who had hundreds of files of child pornography on his laptop computer was sentenced to prison for distributing child pornography online through a peer-to-peer network.
In a statement released by Grewal, he said that 34-year-old Michael D. Gordon, of Bordentown City, was sentenced to five years in state prison, including two and a half years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge James J. Morley in Burlington County.
Officials said Gordon pleaded guilty on July 17 to a second-degree charge of distribution of child pornography. He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life, according to officials.
In his plea, Gordon admitted that he knowingly used file-sharing software to make multiple items of child pornography readily available for any other user to download from a “shared folder” on his computer, officials said.
Deputy Attorney General Supriya Prasad prosecuted Gordon and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Cyber Crimes Bureau, according to officials.
Gordon was arrested in April 2019 as the result of an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice, conducted with assistance from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Bordentown City Police Department.
Officials said a detective of the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Cyber Crimes Bureau was monitoring an online file-sharing network that is popular with child pornography offenders when he identified a computer address that was sharing child pornography. On multiple occasions, the detective successfully downloaded hundreds of items of child pornography being shared from that IP address, which was traced to Gordon’s home in Bordentown City, according to officials.
Detectives of the Division of Criminal Justice, assisted by agents of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and officers of the Bordentown City Police Department, executed a Dec. 3 search warrant at Gordon’s home, arresting him and seizing his computer devices, according to officials. The devices were brought to the Division of Criminal Justice Forensics Laboratory, where a forensic examination of his laptop computer revealed over 600 images and videos of child pornography, officials said.
“By viewing and redistributing child pornography, offenders like Gordon participate in the cruel sexual exploitation of innocent children— children whose images can never be erased from the internet,” Grewal said in a statement. “Protecting children is our highest priority, and we will continue to collaborate across all levels of law enforcement to send these offenders to prison.”
Attorney General Grewal commended Deputy Attorney General Prasad and the detectives who conducted the investigation for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Cyber Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Julia Glass. Grewal also thanked U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Bordentown City Police Department for their assistance.
“We want offenders who download and share child pornography to know that they may face longer prison sentences based on the extent of their collections and their distribution activities,” Director Veronica Allende of the Division of Criminal Justice said in a statement. “New Jersey has tough child pornography laws, and we will continue to make strong use of them as we investigate and prosecute these offenders.”
Grewal and Allende also urged anyone with information about the distribution of child pornography on the internet – or about suspected improper contact by unknown persons communicating with children via the internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children – to contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 888-648-6007.