Border Patrol Agent Busted In Undercover Morris County Child Sex Sting: Prosecutor
Authorities claim that a 51-year-old US Border Patrol agent was arrested after he had many online conversations with a New Jersey undercover agent who was acting as a minor.
File photo: US Customs and Border Patrol.
Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll announced Friday, July 25, that the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force had started investigating Harry Peless, 51, of Newport, MI, in September 2024.
According to Carroll and Chief of Detectives Robert McNally, Peless had sexually explicit internet chats with an undercover police officer he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Along with an item of child pornography, he allegedly emailed the “13-year-old” obscene videos of himself.
Following the investigation, Peless, a member of the US Customs and Border Patrol, was charged on Friday, July 25, in New Jersey with one count of attempted sexual assault in the second degree, one count of endangering the welfare of a child by distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in the second degree, one count of endangering the welfare of a child by sexual conduct in the third degree, one count of obscenity in the third degree, and one count of attempted criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.
Additionally, he was charged with Attempted Transfer of Obscene Material of a Minor by the U.S. Attorney’s Office-Eastern District of Michigan.
With support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, the investigation was carried out by members of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of the Sex Crimes/Child Endangerment Unit.
