DRUGS-FOR-SEX OFFER LANDS EX-PROBATION OFFICER IN PRISON

MAYS LANDING -- A former senior probation officer was sentenced
Friday to four years in state prison on charges that he offered to
trade drugs for sex with a woman he was supervising, among other acts
of official misconduct.

Little Egg Harbor Township resident Joshua D. Fell, 31, pleaded
guilty to the charges in March. His sentence also forbids him from
ever getting another public job in New Jersey, according to Atlantic
County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz.

Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury, in pronouncing the sentence,
said Fell's "conduct jeopardized the justice system and the operation
of the probation system."

When Fell offered his guilty plea, he admitted that he tried to get a
West New York, N.J., woman "who was on probation and under his
supervision" to have sex with him by offering her marijuana or
assuring her he could take care of any drug-testing problems she
might have if she did smoke pot, according to Assistant Prosecutor
Daniel Murray.

The woman told her lawyer about the offer and the lawyer went to the
Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. Blitz said members of the
official-corruption unit in his office investigated the charges.

When a county grand jury indicted Fell last October, Blitz said the
investigation also found the former probation officer had made
similar offers to other women, including a Tuckerton resident whose
probation he also supervised.