A former Union City man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for coercing underage girls into sex acts on a webcam back in 2013, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced.Â
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Daniel Derringer III, 29, of Lake Worth, Fla., formerly of Union City, was sentenced to 12 years in state prison on Friday by Hudson County Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Arre.
Back in November, Derringer pleaded guilty to two counts of manufacturing child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of debauching the morals of a child.
He was sentenced to six years in prison 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.
Additionally, Derringer will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life.
Derringer was charged in an investigation by the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit and the Division of Criminal Justice.
Three of the victims were 15 at the time of the alleged offenses, and one was 14. The fifth was 16 at the time. Under state law in effect at the time, a child was defined as under 16 for purposes of the child pornography law; now the law defines a child as under 18.
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, authorities said.
The person, who was later identified as 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, officials said.
The investigation revealed that Derringer convinced the victim to take off her top and expose her breasts in front of her webcam.
Derringer recorded the act and he then got 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, court documents show.
From there, he ordered the girl to disrobe and then demanded that she touch herself in a sexual manner and assume various poses to better expose herself, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Derringer masturbated and exposed his genitals to the girl via his webcam. He also showed her sexually explicit videos of other young girls, officials 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.
“By threatening to expose multiple underage girls to disgrace and embarrassment on the internet, Derringer not only sexually exploited his victims, but also subjected them to incalculable emotional harm,†Grewal said in a statement.
“Were it not for the courage of the Minnesota victim and the diligence of our law enforcement team, he might still be stalking young girls instead of serving this lengthy prison sentence.â€
