By REBECCA EVERETT
@GazetteRebecca
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — A retired New Jersey police officer living in Southampton was held in jail over the weekend after he appeared in Northampton District Court and denied child pornography charges.
Bruce Singer, 68, of 36 Hillside Meadow Drive, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of distributing material depicting a child in the nude and three counts of possession of child pornography.
According to court documents, Singer owns a company called Driver Improvement Association Inc., which is registered in New Jersey. He was a police officer in Paramus, New Jersey from 1972 to 1999, according to the Paramus Police Department’s office of the police chief and Singer’s LinkedIn profile.
At Singer’s arraignment Friday, Judge W. Michael Goggins set bail at $5,000 and ruled that if he posted bail, Singer would have to wear a GPS monitoring device. The terms also prohibit him from having any contact with children under 18 or using the Internet without permission of the Probation Department.
Singer posted bail Friday but there were no GPS devices available, so Goggins ordered him held until a device became available, according to court documents. It was not clear Monday if a GPS device had become available.
According to court documents, Singer was arrested Thursday as part of a joint investigation of Massachusetts State Police and police in Easthampton and Southampton. The police were investigating people they believed were contacting each other through Craigslist about exchanging child pornography, court records show.
Police wrote in court documents that they found an email containing two illegal images that was sent Feb. 15, 2014, from a particular email address. They determined that the address was registered to Singer in Southampton, and police executed a search warrant at his house Thursday. According to court records, police found numerous files of child pornography on his computer.
Court documents state that Singer told police he recognized some of the images that had been attached to the email, and that while he did not remember sending them, he might have done so.
Singer is due back in court July 24 for a hearing to determine if his case will be moved to Hampshire Superior Court. If convicted of a charge of distribution of material depicting a child in the nude, Singer could face a state prison sentence of between 10 and 20 years. A first offense charge of possession of child pornography carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Rebecca Everett can be reached at [email protected].
