Crime & Safety

Former RU Student Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Distribution

Hongyu Wang faces three to five years in state prison and must register as a sex offender.

A 21-year-old Piscataway man has pleaded guilty to charges of child pornography distribution while attending Rutgers University. 

Hongyu Wang, a former Rutgers student, pleaded guilty on Friday to second-degree distribution of child pornography and fourth-degree attempted tampering with evidence, according to a press release from the NJ Office of the Attorney General.

Wang was indicted in September on charges of sharing child pornography files on the internet. 

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Authorities found him as part of an investigation by the New Jersey State Police Digital Technology Investigation Unit and the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. 

The two agencies were investigating individuals engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing of child pornography files, and downloaded a file that was traced to Wang's computer at Rutgers, according to the release.

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On Jan. 26, 2012, a detective approached Wang at the university, who agreed to speak with him and ride to the apartment he shared with his parents, where the computer was located at that time. 

When they arrived, Wang shoved his mother in front of the detective and tried to run toward his bedroom, but was stopped by the detective, the release said.

He was found to have magnets in his shoes intended to erase the hard drive data. Police discovered 230 child pornography videos available for sharing on the computer when Wang was arrested.

Rutgers expelled him following the arrest, the release said.

Wang is to be sentenced on January 17 to three to five years in state prison and required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s law, according to the release.


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