Sussex County man sentenced to 80 months in prison for distribution of child pornography
FRANKLIN BOROUGH, NJ (Sussex County) – A Sussex County man was sentenced to 80 months in prison for distributing videos and images of child sexual abuse, according to U.S. Attorney Alina Habba.
Gaetano Lapegna, 67, of Franklin Borough previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to one count of distribution of child pornography. Judge Cecchi imposed the sentence Friday in Newark federal court, Habba said.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, from December 2022 to March 2023, Lapegna distributed videos and images of child sexual abuse via a publicly available online peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing program. During the course of the investigation, an undercover law enforcement officer conducted online sessions using the P2P program, during which a user shared hundreds of videos and images of child sexual abuse from an IP address traced to Lapegna’s address.
Subsequent to a lawful search of his residence on March 30, 2023, law enforcement officers recovered over 100 items depicting child pornography on Lapegna’s thumb drive. Law enforcement also found that Lapegna’s computer was running the same version of the P2P program from which law enforcement downloaded child pornography from Lapegna.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Cecchi sentenced Lapegna to five years of supervised release and ordered restitution of $50,000, Habba said.
