08 Mar 2009 - World News

A Chatham Township accountant who is a former Little League coach pleaded guilty today to sending sexually explicit photographs of himself over the Internet in 2007 to a person he believed, and was, over the age of 18.

Michael D’Onofrio, 48, originally was charged in 2007 with having sexually graphic talks in a chat room and trying to arrange for a meeting with a person he believed was a 13-year-old girl, but in reality was a 45-year-old man associated with the Perverted Justice anti-pedophile organization.

In Superior Court today, D’Onofrio admitted only to promoting obscenity to a person over the age of 18. His plea agreement with the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office calls for him to be sentenced in April to probation, continued therapy, and 250 hours of community service, but not in activities involving children.

“At the time I believed that person was an adult and now I know that person is an adult,” D’Onofrio told Judge Thomas V. Manahan.

In exchange for his plea, the prosecutor’s office is expected to dismiss charges of luring, attempted sexual assault, attempted child endangerment, and attempted distribution of pornography to a minor.

Defense lawyer Alan Silber said that D’Onofrio, a father of three, is still married to a wife who is supportive of him.

Township Detective Daniel Papa learned in July 2007, through a citizen, that the then-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.

According to an arrest affidavit filed by Papa, D’Onofrio contacted the “girl” in a Yahoo chat room on March 6, 2007, and after conversing a while, he said he was “totally turned on” by her. He allegedly had given her a telephone number, which authorities said belonged to a BlackBerry cell phone owned by the Stevens Institute of Technology. D’Onofrio was employed there as a controller and assistant treasurer at the time.