Guilty child molester avoids prison time
TRENTON » A child molester who previously taught boys for a living has evaded state prison time by pleading guilty and agreeing to continue getting counseling treatment as a Megan’s Law sex offender.
The defense attorney, prosecution and judiciary all agreed last week that Menachem A. Chinn should not serve any time behind bars if he stays clean with the law.
Chinn, 41, of East Windsor, found himself in a boatload of trouble earlier this year when authorities jailed him without bail on allegations he sexually assaulted two minors. A disgraced ex-schoolteacher at Shalom Torah Academy in Marlboro Township, Chinn admits he molested a boy at his East Windsor home in April 2012 and victimized another boy in the years 2005 and 2011.
He pleaded guilty July 7 to both accusations, admitting he endangered the welfare of children through sexual conduct that had impaired or debauched their morals. After fessing up, a judge ordered Chinn to be released from jail on non-monetary conditions that required him to avoid any new criminal activity.
Chinn’s plea deal called for a five-year suspended prison sentence, and Mercer County Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw honored that agreement last Friday when he agreed to suspend the imposition of the sentence in total.
Similar to probation, a suspended sentence is a noncustodial rehab arrangement that could lead to eventual imprisonment if the defendant violates any terms or conditions of the sentence. In Chinn’s case, he must register under Megan’s Law as a sex offender and must have no contact with the victims or their family members.
The judge further ordered Chinn to surrender his passport to the New Jersey Division of Parole and to continue receiving counseling until he is medically discharged. Chinn is also subjected to parole supervision for life and cannot have any unsupervised contact with any minors, including his own children, according to the terms of his sentence.
Chinn’s stunning fall from grace did not immediately resonate with his family. When The Trentonian interviewed Chinn’s wife in April, she strongly stood by her man and called the initial charges “ridiculous.”
“It’s crazy. It makes no sense,” Ruth Chinn said at the time. She referred to her husband as a “good teacher” and said, “Every single parent has unlimited praises to say of him. There was never an issue — never ever. We were so careful even in our own house to keep the boys and girls separate.”
Authorities originally charged Menachem Chinn with several counts of second-degree sexual assault on a child and one count of third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact, but those charges were dismissed at Chinn’s sentencing hearing last week when he was sentenced on two separate accusations of endangering welfare of children through sexual conduct.
Chinn resolved both of his child molestation cases with guilty pleas and was sentenced accordingly to five years of concurrent incarceration in each case. The judge suspended the imposition of both sentences in total.
Chinn can avoid future prison time by remaining on the straight and narrow, but he has already served 79 days in jail without bail from April 20 to July 7 due to his sex offenses.
Police arrested Chinn in April for endangering the welfare of a child and then re-arrested him in May when another victim came forward. Chinn was being held on pretrial detention and could have faced many years in state prison if he was convicted at trial, but he evaded the worstcase scenario by reaching a plea bargain with the state.
“The Court finds the negotiated sentence to be within the authorized range and in accordance with the law,” Judge Warshaw wrote in his judgment of conviction against Chinn. “To be fair and in the interests of justice, the Court will impose the recommended sentence in accordance with the plea agreement.”
In both judgments of conviction, Warshaw noted that Chinn “has no history of prior delinquency or criminal activity or has led a law-abiding life for a substantial period of time before the commission of the present offense.”
Lifetime Supervision
A suspended sentence is very similar to probation, although suspended sentences oftentimes do not include state supervision. But in Chinn’s case, he will be supervised for life by the New Jersey Division of Parole, which is responsible for managing Chinn’s requirement to continue counseling and to have no contact with minors.
“Simply put, the goal of the agency’s supervision of sex offenders is to prevent further victimization,” the New Jersey State Parole Board states on its website.
A self-confessed child molester, Chinn could be resentenced if he violates the terms of his suspended sentence. He was represented by private defense attorney Steven D. Altman and the prosecutor in the case was Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Renee Robeson.