A former volunteer youth leader was sentenced to seven years in state prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Nutley girl he met at a local church.
Samuel Naranjo, 32, of Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by Essex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Cassini III to seven years state prison with an 85 percent parole ineligibility. He will be subject to registration as a sex offender under Megan’s Law, will be on parole supervision for life and is forever barred from supervising or participating in activities with minors. Naranjo will serve his time at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, New Jersey. He had pleaded guilty to the charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child on May 7, 2008.
According to Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Deborah Freier, who prosecuted the case, Naranjo, formerly of Bogota, met the victim at the Iglesia de la Alianza del Cristiano y del Misionario de Nutley, a church with a large Spanish-speaking population. Naranjo carried on a 15-month relationship with the minor. The victim’s father contacted authorities after his son had discovered sexually explicit emails between the defendant and the victim on their home computer. As part of the investigation, detectives from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Nutley Police Department confiscated the defendant’s office computer. On October 1, 2007, Naranjo was arrested at his office in Port Murray, Warren County, where he was employed as an accountant.
I must be reading this incorrectly. Maybe it’s time for new glasses. 7 years in jail with an 85% chance of parole for sexually assaulting a 14 year old! He only gets 7 years and they can let him out early! That is totally outrageous. Judge Cassini should be ashamed!
I would be very happy to be there when he is released and offer him a one-way ride to the Meadowlands for an early release party! SICKENING is putting mildly. Not one penny should be spent on these parasites. Kill him now and be done with it. No political correctness here folks.
Isn’t it an 85% parole INeligibility? Meaning a 15% chance of parole? Regardless, 7 years seems like a very light sentence.
“Regardless, 7 years seems like a very light sentence.”
Welcome to NJ.
I’m waiting for the “Former Child Convicted of Child Endangerment” headline.
I believe it means that he must serve at least 85% of his full sentence before he is eligible for parole.
What I’d like to know is how this went on for 15 months – and was able to be called a relationship – without anyone knowing about it? It wasn’t even suspected – it was discovered by accident. So had this girl been smart enough to delete email they’d still be *in a relationship*.
The parents should get some blame in this as well.
The sentence may be lighter than you’d expect because it seems it was not forcible sexual assault.
Iglesia de la Alianza del Cristiano y del Misionario de Nutley, a church with a large Spanish-speaking population.
Uh… duh?
Ditto to SSP’s comment about it probably being consensual.
As far as how it went on for 15 months… The guy was a Youth Leader (presumably for the church they met at).
The parents probably knew of the relationship, but thought it to be more of an innocent mentor/pupil relationship than it was.
Good point about the trusting mentor Mike, but 15 months of a 14 year old girl having privacy on a computer without a parent checking up on things? Skip the mentor – she could have been chatting it up with any number of freaks we’ve all seen on dateline.
Not knowing who your kids talk to online means you have a problem. Not knowing where your kids go online means you have a problem.
“The sentence may be lighter than you’d expect because it seems it was not forcible sexual assault.”
Who cares? She was underage. End of story.
I agree, Mrs. M.
I understand the outrage Mrs M, Nellie, but you can’t ignore the difference between forcible rape and sexual assault in a case like this. Just looking at it from the girl’s perspective, she may very well be traumatized by this, but the damage that would come from being raped would probably be much more significant. Yeah, it’s disgusting and he should go to jail, but there is a difference between the two.
And Mike, I made sure not to use the word “consentual” because a 14 year old can’t consent in the eyes of the law. But your point about it possibly flying under the parent’s radar because of who he was in the church is right on. Youth group leaders, camp counselors, scout troop leaders, etc., are all in positions that society tends to admire but where they can easily take advantage of kid’s in their care.
At 14 I was more than capable of hiding my computer activities from my parents, and our computer was in a public place. I don’t expect parents today are magically more computer literate.
All that said, my physical travel was limited by my living six or seven miles outside of town (which upstate, isn’t ‘just another town’… it’s ‘nothing’).
FYI…from the internet:
Chile has an age of consent of 12, Spain 13, China, Croatia, Onterio Canada, Italy, Austria are at 14, Czech Republic, France, Poland and Sweden 15, Norway, Switzerland and U.K. 16, Ireland 17, the U.S. 14-18 depending on the state and in Tunisia you have to be 20 to consent to sex.
Great Balls of Fire, Martin.
“… a church with a large Spanish-speaking population.
Uh… duh?”
Please tell me I am misinterpreting your statement here – of course you don’t mean that because the parishoners (and therefore, assuming also the victim’s parents) are Spanish-speaking, they are therefore incapable of properly supervising their daughter’s online behavior. I’ve also seen appalling lack of supervision from parents whose folks probably arrived on the Mayflower.
Did I interpret your post incorrectly?
And this doesn’t diminish the fact to remember – the adult perp is to blame here! Let’s say for a minute that the parents are completely clueless and naive. Was the assailant equally clueless, believing he was in a foreign land where the age of consent is 13? Puuhleeeze!
And thank heaven for the alert brother.
Probably – I thought it was due to the seriously long name – all in Spanish.
Kay, I think Mike means that with a name like “Iglesia de la Alianza del Cristiano y del Misionario de Nutley” it’s not hard to guess that they have a large Spanish-speaking population. I think you can bet that GNM was not suggesting that Latinos are bad parents.
Thanks for the voice of reason, Pete. I admit I can get fired up too quickly sometimes!
Its funny that the church(162 Attorney St) and his wife Keila Zapata tried to defend the man. They were the Youth Leaders at 162 Attorney St. for nearly two years. Hell they even had a sleep over with the young girls at their home. For two years they lied and manipulated the church. She should also be prosecuted for child endangerment.