EAST BRUNSWICK — A township rabbi was one of three people arrested as part of a prostitution operation run by two people from New York, police said.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, has been charged with one count of engaging in prostitution with a child and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey. According to Carey police determined that Goodman had sex with a 17-year-old girl at a hotel in town on February 1.

Also arrested were Gabriella Colon, 18, and Richard Ortiz, 23, of the Bronx, Carey said. The New York pair are facing several charges including human trafficking, conspiracy to commit human trafficking, promoting prostitution of a child, conspiracy to promote prostitution of a child, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal restraint. The prosecutor said they are also facing charges for manufacturing, distributing, and possessing child pornography.

Carey said police determined that over the course of a month the pair had gotten close to 30 men, including Goodman, to pay for sex with the girl. The prosecutor did not identify the hotel involved in the operation run by Colon and Ortiz.

According to the New Jersey Jewish News, a man with the same name as Goodman who served as the director of Chabad of East Brunswick was arrested in January 2013 on charges that he had molested a boy under the age of 13 at a Pennsylvania camp in 2001. Pocononews.net reported that Goodman was a counselor at the camp where the boy was a camper.

A story on Jewishcommunitywatch.org said Goodman was convicted on two counts of indecent assault of a child under the age of 13 in October 2015 and was sentenced to 11 to 23 months in jail. The story said he was also required to complete sex offender training and was barred from having any contact with the victim or his family. Goodman was also required to register as a Tier 3 sex offender. He was also to be barred from working with or being in places where children under the age of 18 are known to congregate, according to the story.

The New Jersey Jewish News story said Goodman is the son of Rabbi Baruch Goodman who is the campus director at Chabad House at Rutgers University.

The investigation is ongoing and Carey encouraged anyone with information about the case to call the East Brunswick Police Department at 732-390-6900 or the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at 732-745-4194.

It was not known as of late Sunday night whether Goodman had an attorney representing him.

More From New Jersey 101.5

 

Contact reporter Adam Hochron at 609-359-5326 or Adam.Hochron@townsquaremedia.com

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM