BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, New Jersey — Robert Shea II, an Ocean County attorney who serves as legal counsel to the Jackson Township Planning Board, has been arrested and charged with distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced on Thursday, October 22.
Source: Englebrook Independent News
According to the prosecutor's office, the investigation began with a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, referred through the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The tip concerned an individual allegedly sending and receiving images depicting child sexual abuse through a Snapchat account.
Detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office High Tech Crime Squad and the Berkeley Township Police Department traced internet protocol addresses linked to the activity to a residence in Berkeley Township and an office building in Toms River associated with Shea's law firm, R.C. Shea & Associates, prosecutors said.
On Thursday, investigators executed court-authorized search warrants at both locations. Prosecutors said an initial forensic examination of multiple cellular devices belonging to Shea found numerous images of suspected child sexual abuse material, and that a phone recovered at the office contained the Snapchat application allegedly used to distribute an image.
Shea was taken into custody at Berkeley Township Police Headquarters and taken to the Ocean County Jail, where he remained pending a detention hearing at the time of the announcement, according to the prosecutor's office.
Source: NJ 101.5 reporting, via Memesita
Mayor calls for removal
Jackson Township Mayor Jennifer Kuhn called for Shea's immediate removal as Planning Board attorney and said she was moving to terminate the township's relationship with his law firm. "If true, he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Kuhn said in a statement issued Thursday.
The charges against Shea are allegations only. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. No minor victim is identified in the prosecutor's announcement, and Awaaz Punjab does not name or depict any minor.