24 Arrests Made For Luring Children For Sexual Activity

New Jersey authorities arrested 24 men around the state who allegedly tried to lure children to engage in sexual activity, including a firefighter from Mays Landing and a public works employee from Little Egg Harbor.

The multi-agency undercover operation, called "Operation Open House," targeted alleged child predators who were using social media to lure teens and children for sex, according to a news release from Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

Grewal announced Tuesday the men charged used social media and chat apps to communicate with people they thought were 14- and 15-year-old boys and girls, but they were actually talking with undercover officers.

Most of the defendants were arrested when they arrived at a Toms River home where they expected to meet the children alone. Dozens of law enforcement officers were there prepared to make arrests, the release said. 

The arrests were made from Sept. 5 to 9. The 24 defendants were charged with luring, and several face additional charges such as attempted sexual assault on a child, attempted debauching the morals of a child and attempted sharing obscene materials with a child.

Joshua Rauter, 31, of Little Egg Harbor Township, a public works employee, and Richard Hoffman, 23, of Mays Landing, who is a firefighter and a college student, were among those arrested, according to the news release.

“It is a frightening reality that sexual predators are lurking on social media, ready to strike if they find a child who is vulnerable,” Grewal said in a statement. “To counter that threat, we are working collaboratively and aggressively across all levels of law enforcement to apprehend these sex offenders. We want child predators to know that we are on social media too – and the child they target may be the undercover officer who puts them in handcuffs.”

The arrests also included a nurse, college students, a registered sex offender, and one Howell Township police sergeant, Richard Conte, 47, who allegedly pretended to be 19 and attempted to meet a person he believed to be a 15-year-old girl for sex.

Conte was suspended from his job, ordered to surrender his weapons, and ordered to remain under home detention, the release said.

 The defendants were held in the Ocean County Jail until detention hearings and all except one were released subject to pre-trial monitoring conditions. Thomas Blumensteel, a registered sex offender, was ordered detained, the release said.

The undercover law enforcement members who took part in the chats with the defendants were specially trained members of the New Jersey Regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the release said.

The undercover law enforcement officers initiated contact on chat apps such as Kik, Skout, Whisper and Grindr and identified themselves as underage girls and boys and continued over a period of several weeks before the arrests, the release said.

Authorities searched the electronics that the defendants held and drafted search warrants for other seized digital devices, which will go to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office forensic computer laboratory. This will help determine if the devices contain evidence of any prior encounters with underage victims, the release said.

Authorities released a warning with a list of apps that parents should be aware of and carefully monitor, in addition to the apps used in the sting: Omegle, Tinder, Chat Avenue, Chat Roulette, Wishbone, Live.ly, Musical.ly, Paltalk, Yubo, Hot or Not, Down and Tumblr, as well as gaming apps such as Fortnite, Minecraft, and Discord.

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/men-arrested-on-charges-of-luring-underage-children-for-sex/article_51823ca4-1327-540d-baef-61dbca57362e.html

24 arrested in “Operation Open House"

Mina G. Beshay, 27, of Monroe Township
Christopher Vargas, 29, of Toms River
Joshua Rauter, 31, of Little Egg Harbor Township
Joseph Martin, 35, of Seaside Heights
Richard Hoffman, 23, of Mays Landing
Volvi Lowinger, 23, of Lakewood
Thomas Graciano, 28, of Brick
Thomas Blumensteel, 47, of Manchester
Richard Conte, 47, of Farmingdale
Thomas Fuller, 44, Toms River
Zachary Vincent, 24, of Forked River
William Singleton, 24, of Pemberton Township
Jonathan Vece, 22, of Turnersville
Lawrence Ivancic, 51, of Toms River
Robert Lisicki, 51, of Metuchen
Dylan Daffron, 28, of Lacey Township
Steven Portnoy, 27, of Egg Harbor Township
David Studnicky, 64, of Toms River
Anthony Perfidio, 24, of Barnegat
Brian Degnan, 33, of Toms River
Nabindranauth Nandalall, 24, of Bronx, N.Y.
William D. Davis, 23, Bayville
Charles Schlottfeld, 26, of Bayville
Douglass Walton, 54, of Hillsborough