The 57-year-old from Sussex County faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and $250,000 fine at sentencing scheduled for November.
A former band instructor and ambulance volunteer from New Jersey admitted today to luring a teenage boy to Monroe County for sex as well as downloading and receiving child pornography on his home computer, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Robert Mucha, 57, of Newton, Sussex County, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark federal court to one count each of enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and receiving child pornography.
Authorities arrested Mucha on July 26, 2012, at home and he's been detained by law enforcement since then.
Fishman said in a news release that court documents and statements indicate Mucha convinced a teenage boy in October 2010 to travel from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to spend the day with him and then sleep over at Mucha’s apartment in Stroudsburg.
After his arrest in July 2012, Mucha allegedly admitted to sexual contact with the teenager.
Prior to his arrest, Mucha volunteered as an emergency medical technician in Andover, N.J. He also previously taught band and bugle corps to teenagers in Belleville, N.J., and Lakewood, N.J.
Mucha is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 19. The count of enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity to which Mucha pleaded guilty is punishable by a minimum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.Today’s guilty plea is part of Operation Holitna, an ongoing investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations that originated in Boston, according to Fishman's office.
The federal prosecutor credited special agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Andrew M. McLees in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea. He also thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and the HSI Boston office.
Efforts to reach Mucha's attorney, Newark-based assistant federal public defender Carol Gillen, for comment were not immediately successful.