TRENTON – A veteran city police officer was arrested Wednesday on child pornography charges, authorities said.
Trenton Police Officer Paul Marinelli, 52, was arrested by State Police after a cyber crimes unit investigation “revealed him to be in possession of child pornographic images,” according to a statement from a State Police spokesman.
A team of officers from State Police and the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office conducted a warrant search of Marinelli’s home on Wednesday, seizing “multiple electronic devices,” the statement said.
Marinelli, in his 23rd year with the police department, was not home at the time of the search and was later apprehended at a training class at the Ewing police department, where he was escorted out in handcuffs, multiple law enforcement sources said.
He was charged with possession of child pornography and was initially being held on a no-bail warrant at the Middlesex County Jail. His attorney, David Schroth, said Marinelli was released following a court appearance on Thursday.
“We have already pled not guilty and we intend to defend his case aggressively,” Schroth said of his client. “He’s a good man, he’s been a good police officer, he’s a veteran – he served our country in the Gulf War.”
Several Trenton officers who know Marinelli expressed shock that the veteran cop had been accused of possessing child pornography.
Trenton police spokesman Lt. Stephen Varn said Marinelli has been suspended from his post in the patrol bureau pending more investigation.
The case was turned over to state prosecutors at the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.
Source: http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2017/09/trenton_cop_charged_with_possessing_child_porn.html