ISELIN, NJ—A 22-year-old emergency medical technician (EMT) was charged with exchanging “lewd photos” and “sexually explicit messages” with a 12-year-old boy.
Zachary Motta, age 22, was arrested at his home on the morning of February 24 and is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and possession of child pornography.
Motta lives in the Iselin section of Woodbridge and, according to a press release from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, “was employed as an emergency medical technician at a hospital in New Brunswick.”
Motta also “served with the Iselin Volunteer Fire Company,” according to the release.
Efforts to confirm that Motta worked at New Brunswick’s Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) have been unsuccessful as of yet.
“I will look into it for you, but we generally do not discuss individual personnel issues,” said Peter Haigney, a spokesperson for RWJUH. Â But then we never heard back from him.
A spokesperson for the city’s other major hospital, St. Peter’s University Hospital, said that they don’t have EMT’s on staff currently, thus indicating that Motta most likely worked at RWJUH.
“During the investigation, it was determined that between October 2016 and February 2017, Motta had sexually explicit conversations on the internet with the boy,” reads the press release from the MCPO.
“The boy and the defendant also traded lewd photos of themselves,” reads the release.
The investigation, which began after the boy’s mother contacted authorities, was characterized as “active” and “continuing” in the press release.
Anyone with information is asked to call MCPO Detective Christopher Pennisi at (732) 745-3330, or MCPO Detective Joseph Chesseri at (732) 745-3115.
Detective Anna Radowski of the Woodbridge Police Department was also involved in the investigation.Â
Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.
