Cohen is currently undergoing psychiatric care as of last night. His office could not be reached for comment. And in an odd turn, it would appear that Cohen was undone by a law he had sponsored:
Among the more than 100 laws Cohen has sponsored is one that created a 24-hour hotline for members of the public to report computer crimes, including child pornography. He also co-sponsored a law that retroactively removed immunity from churches, schools and other charities that negligently hire employees who sexually abuse children.Cohen shares office space with two other members of the legislature, Sen. Raymond Lesniak and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (both D-Union), and they confirmed that they were the ones who alerted authorities to the possibility Cohen had child pornography on his computers.
This is also a good example of how to report political affiliations in reporting political scandals and criminality.
Lesniak and Cryan have both been instructed not to make further public comments:
A spokesman for the Assembly Democrats, Derek Roseman, declined to comment. And Cohen did not return calls.UPDATE:
Cohen, 57, has served eight terms as an assemblyman and is one of that house’s most vocal liberals. He led the push for stem cell research, sponsoring several bills to increase public funding and create a public institute to study possible medical uses for stem cells.
Cohen also introduced several bills to ease legal time limits for filing lawsuits in sexual abuse cases involving minors.
A former public defender, he shares a law practice with state Sen. Nia Gill, D-Montclair.
In their statement, Lesniak and Cryan said they “have been instructed,” not to discuss the matter further in public. The two said they are following guidelines set by the Office of Legislative Services, the non-partisan service that oversees legislative operations.
The NJ legislature has moved to install filters to block porn and other offensive materials on all legislative computers.
No comments:
Post a Comment