In My Little Town????

This is so very, very sad and tragic and horrific, I can scarce get my head wrapped around the whole of it.

This is the place where people move to find 'security' and 'safety'. They pay MILLIONS of dollars for homes that sell for HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars less in other communities.

Some of my parishioners jokingly refer to Chatham as "Mayberry USA."

Turns out, "security" and "safety" are just illusions on this side of Eden.

What an awful way to learn that lesson.

Photo Credit: Ashley Twigg, Daily Record

Chatham Twp. Little League coach charged in sex sting
Cops: Man, 47, thought he chatted with girl, 13

BY PEGGY WRIGHT
DAILY RECORD
Saturday, September 8, 2007

A Little League coach and father of three from Chatham Township surrendered on Friday on charges of having sexually explicit talks in a chat room and trying to rendezvous with a person he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

Michael Donofrio, 47, arrived in Superior Court, Morristown, close to 4 p.m. Friday with his lawyer and his wife of 22 years. He was advised that he was charged with luring, attempted sexual assault, attempted child endangerment and attempted promotion of obscene material.

Bail was set at $50,000, and Donofrio was taken by Chatham Township detectives back to police headquarters, where he hoped to post bail without being taken to the Morris County jail.

Detective Daniel Papa learned on July 20, through a citizen, that the Little League coach was profiled on the Perverted Justice Web site as a person who engaged in online sexual conversations with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

The "teenager" was actually a 45-year-old man associated with the Perverted Justice anti-pedophile organization, which carries out sting operations by posing as minors who wait for adult men to approach them in chat rooms.

Perverted Justice has collaborated with "Dateline NBC" on a series of sting operations called "To Catch a Predator."

According to an arrest affidavit filed by Papa, Donofrio contacted the "girl" in a Yahoo chat room on March 6, and after conversing awhile, he said he was "totally turned on" by her.

He gave her a telephone number, which authorities said belongs to a BlackBerry cell phone owned by the Stevens Institute of Technology. Donofrio was employed there as a controller and assistant treasurer before his suspension in July, when the college learned that an investigation was under way.

Donofrio allegedly chatted sexually with the decoy throughout March, directed "her" to view "very, very naughty" pictures he had posted on a Web site, and pressed her for a date, the affidavit said.

Donofrio described to the decoy the various sex acts he wanted to perform on "her," and they made tentative arrangements to meet. But Donfrio failed to show up at an address given to him on March 30. He sent an apology on April 1 indicating that he had a family emergency, the affidavit said.

In another online conversation in April, Donofrio allegedly told the decoy that he loved her and asked, "It doesn't bother you that I am 47?" The decoy responded: "no if ... it doesn't bother u that im 13." Donofrio replied, "I thought you were 13 and a half."

The affidavit said that Donofrio at first declined to speak to police when he learned that he was under investigation, but he called on July 21, saying he wanted to cooperate.

"The suspect also expressed concern for his actions and stated that he was ashamed for embarrassing his family," the affidavit said.

Defense lawyer Doris Newman told the judge on Friday that Donofrio has lived in Chatham Township about 14 years and has three sons. Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez responded that Donofrio appears to be a community-minded man on the surface, but is actually "every community's worst nightmare."

That link is: http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070908/COMMUNITIES09/709080341