Pubdate: Sat, 06 May 2006
Source: Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2006 South Jersey Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/29

DRUGS-FOR-SEX OFFER LANDS EX-PROBATION OFFICER IN PRISON

MAYS LANDING -- A former senior probation officer was sentenced 
Friday to four years in state prison on charges that he offered to 
trade drugs for sex with a woman he was supervising, among other acts 
of official misconduct.

Little Egg Harbor Township resident Joshua D. Fell, 31, pleaded 
guilty to the charges in March. His sentence also forbids him from 
ever getting another public job in New Jersey, according to Atlantic 
County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz.

Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury, in pronouncing the sentence, 
said Fell's "conduct jeopardized the justice system and the operation 
of the probation system."

When Fell offered his guilty plea, he admitted that he tried to get a 
West New York, N.J., woman "who was on probation and under his 
supervision" to have sex with him by offering her marijuana or 
assuring her he could take care of any drug-testing problems she 
might have if she did smoke pot, according to Assistant Prosecutor 
Daniel Murray.

The woman told her lawyer about the offer and the lawyer went to the 
Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. Blitz said members of the 
official-corruption unit in his office investigated the charges.

When a county grand jury indicted Fell last October, Blitz said the 
investigation also found the former probation officer had made 
similar offers to other women, including a Tuckerton resident whose 
probation he also supervised.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman