Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

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

 

                                *News Release*         Date: July 30, 2010
 
 

 

 

 


South Plainfield man admits sexual assault

 

 

          Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a South Plainfield man pleaded guilty today to a charge of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl.

 

          Robert Hartobey (DOB 7/12/77) pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated sexual assault, admitting he sexually assaulted the child in her home in Edison on May 13, 2006.

 

Under the terms of a plea agreement reached with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Sheree Pitchford, the defendant is expected to be sentenced to a prison term of eight years and will be required to serve 85 percent of the term before he can be eligible for parole.

 

In addition, Hartobey must register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law, will be subjected to parole supervision for the remainder of his life and will be prohibited from having any contact with the victim.

 

Hartobey, who had worked as a corrections officer at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, also will forfeit his job and will be banned from holding any public job in the future.

 

Hartobey, whose trial was scheduled to begin on August 2, 2010, will be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz on October 25, 2010 at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.

 

Hartobey was charged after Investigator Deborah Riley of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and now-retired Detective Sgt. Richard Buck of the Edison Police Department determined that the defendant sexually assaulted the girl when she was visiting her mother in Edison.

 

The girl told her father when she returned home. Her parents subsequently contacted police.