Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that a Union County man was sentenced to prison today for using file-sharing software to share explicit images of minors from his computer devices. He was arrested in 2014 in Operation Predator Alert.
Officials say Arnold Kay, 78, of Linden, was sentenced to four years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Lisa Walsh in Union County. He pleaded guilty on March 19 to second-degree distribution of explicit images of minors. Kay must register as an offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life.
Deputy Attorney General Layli Khelafa handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau. Kay was one of 28 defendants charged in Operation Predator Alert, a joint operation by the Division of Criminal Justice and ICE Homeland Security Investigations that targeted New Jersey offenders who used a file-sharing network to distribute explicit images of minors.
Detectives monitoring the file-sharing network identified an IP address that was sharing videos of explicit images of minors and traced the IP address to Kay. On June 27, 2014, detectives of the Division of Criminal Justice and special agents of HSI, assisted by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and Linden Police Department, executed a search warrant at Kay’s residence in Linden. Investigators seized multiple computers and electronic devices which were found to contain explicit images of minors.
A full forensic examination conducted at the New Jersey Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory revealed more than 280 videos and images of explicit images of minors, including 12 that were located in a shared folder where other users on the file-sharing network could download them.
Attorney General Grewal and Director Allende urged anyone with information about the distribution of explicit images on the internet – or about suspected improper contact by unknown persons communicating with children via the internet or possible exploitation or abuse of children – to please contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 888-648-6007.