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Press Release

Retired Radio Personality Charged In New Jersey With Attempted Transportation Of A Minor For Illegal Sexual Activity

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. – A retired radio personality was arrested today for attempting to transport a 7-year-old girl from Bergen County, N.J., to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, for the purpose of sexually abusing the girl, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

David Herman, 77, of Airmont, N.Y., and St. Croix, was arrested by special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) at the airport in St. Croix, where he expected to meet the child. He is scheduled to appear tomorrow, Oct. 25, 2013, before U.S. Magistrate Judge George W. Cannon for an initial appearance in St. Croix federal court.

According to documents filed in this case:

Beginning in November 2012, Herman initiated a series of chats on a Web site with an undercover officer from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey. Herman believed that he was communicating with a 36-year-old single mother with a 6-year-old daughter.

Over the course of the following months, Herman had multiple telephone and online communications with the officer during which he indicated his desire to engage in sexual activity with the officer’s fictitious daughter. Herman also attempted to arrange illegal sexual encounters with the child in New York and Bergen County, N.J.

In early 2013, Herman told the undercover that he would like to fly the pair down to spend a few days with him in St. Croix so that he could engage in sexual activity with the daughter. On Sept. 30, 2013, Herman purchased airline tickets for them to fly from LaGuardia Airport to St. Croix.

The count of attempting to transport a minor in interstate commerce with the intent that the minor engage in illegal sexual activity is punishable by a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. The charge also carries a maximum $250,000 fine.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of ICE HSI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Andrew McLees in Newark and Special Agent in Charge Angel M. Melendez in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and detectives of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor John L. Molinelli, with the investigation leading to today’s arrest.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Francisco J. Navarro and Cari Fais of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark.

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

13-415                              

Herman, David Complaint

Updated August 20, 2015