BELVIDERE – A Watchung man pleaded guilty to state charges filed after he was caught filming children in a bathroom at the Lane of Make Believe amusement park in Warren County.

Patrick T. Deck, 54, admitted to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child to produce pornography and one count of illegal weapon possession. He pleaded guilty to the charges before Superior Court Judge John Kingfield on Thursday, Warren County Prosecutor Richard T. Burke announced Friday.

Deck had on Sept. 16 pleaded guilty to federal charges which resulted from the same 2012 incident. He admitted filming children in the restroom of the amusement park in Hope and taking sexually explicit images of minors.

Pursuant to a plea agreement reached by his lawyer and the Prosecutor’s Office, he faces up to 15 years in prison on the state charges. This is in addition to the term of up to 40 years he could get on the federal charges. Sentencing is currently scheduled for in January.

Deck admitted Thursday that he possessed a Sears .22-caliber rifle while he was prohibited from possession weapons because of two prior convictions for endangering the welfare of a child.

Besides the charge of taking pictures of children at the Land of Make Believe, for his sexual gratification, he admitted filming another child – who was known to him – in Morris County and other locations in New Jersey when the victim was between 6 and 12, Burke said.

Deck will be subjected to Megan’s Law and will forfeit his interest in a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe, the rifle and ammunition seized during the execution of a search warrant.

Deck was arrested Aug. 12, 2012 by New Jersey State Police after he was caught taking videos of children in the men’s restroom at the amusement park. A search of his home the next day turned up multiple videos and images of child sexual abuse on his computers and other electronic devices, officials said at the time. More than 100 pornographic videos and the rifle were seized from Deck’s home on Lakeview Avenue in Watchung.

On the federal charges, Deck also admitted that between the years 1997 through 2010 he transported two minors, beginning when they were 11 years old, to New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Montana so that he could film them in sexually explicit conduct. He then brought those images back to his home in Watchung, officials said.

In 1988, Deck was convicted in state Superior Court in Burlington County of endangering the welfare of a child. This was for photographing minors engaging in prohibited sexual acts.



Numerous agencies were involved in the investigation after the 2012 arrest, including prosecutor's offices in Warren, Morris and Somerset counties, State Police, N.J. Park Police, Florham Park and Watchung Borough police departments and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations

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