Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

                                 25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

 

                                *News Release*          Date: July 20, 2009                                                 

 
 

 

 


Former Woodbridge police officer waives trial; pleads guilty

 

 

          Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a former Woodbridge police officer pleaded guilty today to charges of taking inappropriate photos of a teenage girl between the fall of 2004 and May 2005 in Colonia.

 

Douglas Karlson, (DOB 9/24/59) of Old Bridge, pleaded guilty to second-degree counts of official misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child, admitting he took numerous nude and semi-nude photos of the 15-year-old girl, knowing that his conduct was unlawful and that the photos were pornographic.

 

Karlson also admitted he was on-duty and had responded to a complaint at the girl’s home when he met her and later began taking the photos for his own benefit.

 

Under the terms of a plea agreement negotiated with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua, the defendant faces up to six years in prison when he is sentenced September 21, 2009, by Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.

 

Karlson, whose job as a police officer has been terminated, is also scheduled at that time to be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage boy on various occasions in Old  Bridge  between 1994 and 1998.

 

In that case, Karlson was convicted June 19, 2009, of aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault following a trial that began June 15, 2009.

 

During the trial, Assistant Prosecutor Bevacqua presented testimony showing Karlson sexually assaulted the boy, who was 14 years old when the assaults began.

 

Karlson had been convicted in both cases in 2006 and was sentenced to serve 17 years in prison with no chance of parole for six years. He was granted new trials when an appeals court overturned the conviction in August 2008.