Ex-N.J. lawmaker faces child porn charges
TRENTON - A former New Jersey lawmaker who resigned following allegations that he viewed child pornography on his state-issued computer has been indicted by a grand jury.
TRENTON - A former New Jersey lawmaker who resigned following allegations that he viewed child pornography on his state-issued computer has been indicted by a grand jury.
Former Assemblyman Neil Cohen was indicted on four counts that include reproducing, possessing and distributing the illegal images. He also faces an official misconduct charge.
State Attorney General Anne Milgram announced the charges against Cohen today. If convicted of the most serious counts, he faces more than a decade in prison and $160,000 in fines.
Milgram's office began investigating the Democrat after two lawmakers who shared an office with Cohen told authorities that a staffer found a printout of a nude adolescent girl in Cohen's Union Township office.
Days after news of the investigation broke in July, Cohen resigned and checked himself into a psychiatric hospital.
He has not spoken publicly about the allegations. He could not be immediately reached for comment today.
Cohen, an unmarried divorce lawyer, served in the Assembly in 1990-91 and continuously since 1994.
As a lawmaker, Cohen fought child porn. In 2002, a measure he sponsored creating a hot line for the public to report computer crimes such as child pornography became law.