LOWER TOWNSHIP — A 50-year-old Villas man has been charged with making and possessing child sexual abuse material, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland and Lower Township Police Chief Donald Vanaman announced Wednesday.
Thomas J. Crandley was taken into custody Tuesday, Oct. 13, when the Cape May County Regional SWAT Team stopped his vehicle in Lower Township, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
The investigation began with two CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reporting that an unidentified person had uploaded child sexual abuse material. Investigators later identified that person as Crandley, the office said.
Search warrants were then served at his home by the Prosecutor's Office High Technology Crimes Unit and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Regional SWAT Team, Lower Township, Cape May and Wildwood Crest police, and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations in Atlantic City.
Crandley is charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child (manufacturing child sexual abuse material) and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child (possession). He is being held in the Cape May County Correctional Center pending court proceedings.
In New Jersey, a second-degree crime carries five to 10 years in state prison and a third-degree crime three to five years.
Anyone with information about child exploitation can call the Prosecutor's Office at 609-465-1135 or leave an anonymous tip at cmcpo.tips.
Charges are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: Cape May County Prosecutor's Office.