Aryeh Goodman, who runs a religious learning center out of his East Brunswick home, paid to have sex with a 17-year-old girl at a hotel in the township, authorities said.
Goodman, 35, turned himself in five days later. He was charged with engaging in prostitution with a child and endangering the welfare of a child. Goodman has previously served time in prison for indecent assault on a child under the age of 13 in Pennsylvania.
Gabriella Colon, 18, and Richard Ortiz, 23, both of Bronx, New York, were arrested at a motel in Fort Lee on Friday and charged with 11 counts of human trafficking as well as child pornography offenses, for providing the 17 year old to Goodman and other men, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Colon and Ortiz coerced the 17-year-old Lancaster, Pennsylvania girl into having sex with the men between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2 at a hotel in East Brunswick. Other charges against them include criminal restraint, promoting prostitution and endangering the welfare of a child.
They are being held at the Middlesex County jail in North Brunswick.
Authorities didn’t name the hotel.
Goodman, was sentenced in Pike County, Pennsylvania in October 2015 to 11 to 23 months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, according to court records.
When Goodman was arrested in January 2013, he was charged with 12 counts of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age. The remaining charges were dismissed as part of his guilty plea.
The assaults occurred in June 2001 when Goodman was a counselor at Camp Manachem in Pennsylvania. At the time of his arrest in that case, Goodman was the director of Chabad of East Brunswick, which focused on educating children.