Pennsauken ex-officer sentenced for child porn

A former Pennsauken police officer was sentenced in federal court yesterday to more than 14 years in prison for sending hundreds of images of child pornography from a work computer.

John E. Schenberger Jr., 42, of Sicklerville, has been held without bail since July, when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him at work. He was immediately suspended from duty.

Schenberger, who was in charge of maintaining the department's in-house computers, pleaded guilty in January before U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb in Camden.

He admitted sending child pornography to a person with whom he was instant-messaging on the Hello.com Web site June 5. He sent 539 digital pictures and eight digital movies through the Web site's file-sharing software.

In his plea, Schenberger admitted that 373 of the pictures and six of the movies portrayed prepubescent children in sexually explicit poses or engaging in sex acts.

He also admitted sending the same person 532 pictures and three movies through Hello.com July 5. More than 400 of the pictures and all three movies contained child pornography.

In both cases, Schenberger sent the files from a computer at the Pennsauken Police Department, where he was a 17-year veteran with the rank of patrolman.

A task force in Memphis investigated the case. Schenberger was indicted in Tennessee, where Schenberger had sent the material, before the case was transferred to New Jersey.

Bumb gave Schenberger 170 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release upon his release.

"That is a long and appropriate prison sentence, particularly given that this defendant was a police officer who engaged in the conduct while on duty," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said. "The children depicted in those images were the victims of heinous, depraved acts."