A former Union City man has pleaded guilty to coercing under girls into performing sex acts on a webcam back in 2013, state Attorney General Chris Porrino announced.Â
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Daniel Derringer III, 28, of Lake Worth, Florida, formerly of Union City, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of manufacturing child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of debauching the morals of a child before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable.
Derring was indicted on the charges back in March.
Authorities said the the state will recommend that Derringer be sentenced to 12 years in prison, including six years for each of the manufacturing charges, with the sentences to run consecutively, and concurrent sentences of five and three years on the distribution and debauching charges.
He would be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life.
“Derringer is a serial sexual predator who used the anonymity of the internet to sexually exploit underage girls,” Porrino said in a statement.
“Thanks to the courage of the victim who came forward and the excellent work of our detectives and attorneys, we uncovered more of Derringer’s vile crimes and now are sending him to prison, where he can’t harm any more vulnerable victims.”
The investigation began when a 15-year-old girl in Minnesota reported to local police that she had been coerced into engaging in sexual conduct on a webcam by a person who contacted her online through a social networking site, claiming to be another girl of the same age, officials said.
The person, allegedly Derringer, transmitted a video of an underage girl touching herself in a sexual manner to make the victim believe she was seeing the girl who was chatting with her.
He then allegedly convinced the victim to take off her top and expose her breasts in front of her webcam.
Derringer is further accused of recording the act before getting on his own webcam, revealing that he had been lying about his identity, and told her that if she didn’t do as he told her, he would post the video of her exposing her breasts on the Internet.
He also allegedly ordered the girl to disrobe before demanding that she touch herself in a sexual manner and assume various poses to better expose herself.
Meanwhile, Derringer masturbated and exposed his genitals to the girl via his webcam, as well as showing her sexually explicit videos of other young girls, authorities said.
The victim used her cell phone to take a photo of her computer screen with her assailant’s face visible, and police in Minnesota traced the communications to the address of Derringer, who was living in New Jersey at that time.
They alerted the New Jersey State Police. The State Police matched the photo taken by the victim with Derringer. The State Police executed a search warrant on April 4, 2013 at Derringer’s residence in Union City and seized computer equipment.
Derringer was arrested by the Union City Police three days later when he returned from a trip out of state.
Forensic examination of the computer equipment seized from Derringer revealed numerous videos of incidents similar to that which the Minnesota girl reported to the police.
Detectives, working with other law enforcement agencies across the U.S., were able to identify four additional alleged victims in Washington State, Florida, Indiana and Ohio who were subsequently interviewed.
Derringer is scheduled to be sentenced on February 9th.
