Friday, January 23, 2009

MORRISTOWN: A man pleaded guilty today to burglary and sexual assault charges for sneaking into a 5-year-old girl's bedroom and sexually assaulting her.

Timothy Iberer, 28, of Bloomingdale, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary, one count of sexual assault and one count of attempted aggravated sexual assault. He faces up to 18 years in prison when Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto sentences him Feb. 27.

Iberer, who is a sex offender and did not know the family or child, initially targeted the house at random. He must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence before being eligible for parole.


Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi said, "I applaud the extraordinarily dedicated and professional detective work of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office in conjunction with the Pequannock Police detectives. They, along with our assistant prosecutors, worked around the clock for many weeks attempting to solve this horrific and vile crime. To no fault of their own, this victim's family was targeted by this predator."

The prosecutor noted special credit to Detective Sgt. Robert McDermott who developed the profile of this suspect.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez and investigated by the prosecutor's sex crime/child endangerment unit, Pequannock detectives, the county sheriff's crime investigation section and state police. The case detective was Kristi Allegretta.

Iberer was indicted on charges that he snuck into the child's first-floor room at least three times between Aug. 1, 2007 and Sept. 10. During one of his break-ins, the child's mother walked into the room and saw Iberer sitting on the bed.

Fingerprints and partial palm prints led to his arrest. He pleaded guilty to two break-ins.

The girl told police the man shined a flashlight in her eyes and touched her, according to the arrest affidavit.

In 2002, Iberer was sentenced to four years in prison for a sex assault in Clifton. He served most of the sentence at a state treatment facility for sex offenders until his release in June 2006.