NJ millionaire Stephen Mell sentenced to 3 years in prison for sex with minor – Asbury Park Press

FLEMINGTON – The Far Hills man who pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a girl under 16 has been sentenced for his charges stemming from Hunterdon County.

Stephen Bradley Mell, 53, was sentenced to three years in state prison on June 28 after he pleaded guilty to third-degree endangering the welfare of a child via sexual conduct.

Hunterdon County Acting Prosecutor Michael J. Williams announced the sentencing on July 10.

“Mr. Mell was arrested in June 2018 after an investigation by the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Victims Unit discovered that he had engaged in sexual relations with a female victim under the age of sixteen in Readington and Bedminster Townships,” Williams said. “He was indicted by a Hunterdon County Grand Jury on August 16, 2018.”

Mell was sentenced by the Hunterdon County Superior Court Judge Angela F. Borkowski. He will also be subjected to the provisions of Megan’s Law and remain under parole supervision for life.

His Hunterdon County sentencing comes after he was sentenced on June 17 in federal court for similar charges.

According to federal documents, Mell is currently housed at the federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. 

EARLIER: NJ millionaire faces sentencing for sex with teen on private airplane on autopilot

“Mr. Mell’s sentence will run concurrent to a seven-year federal sentence for crimes against the same victim,” Williams said. “This was a joint prosecution with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office.”

His three-year sentence out of Hunterdon County will be served concurrently with his seven year federal sentence.

In addition to the seven-year federal prison sentence, Federal District Court Judge Brian Martinotti Judge ordered Mell to serve five years of supervised release and pay $40,000  in fines, $35,200 in restitution and $5,000 of assessments.

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Mell, who owned a municipal bond brokerage firm, had a $3.8 million home, two private airplanes and a helicopter.  He also is the father of three children.

He was coach of the hockey team for more than a decade at the Essex Hunt Club in Peapack-Gladstone, an organization better known for its fox hunts and its membership which once included Jackie Onassis. He was a member of Somerset Hills Country Club, an exclusive club in Bernardsville with one of the country’s top golf courses.

Mell also served as a board member at Westminster School, a prep school in Connecticut, where his son is a student. In May 2017, he received the “Unsung Hero Award” from Far Hills Country Day School.

Mell already had “a pre-existing relationship with the minor” when he began communicating with her, according to the brief filed earlier in support of his release on bail.

“In fact, it was the minor’s mother who first introduced Mr. Mell to obtain flight lessons for the minor,” the brief states.

EARLIER: NJ millionaire sentenced to 7 years for sex with teen on private airplane, child porn

Mell began communicating with the 15-year-old through text messages and Snapchat in 2017, according to a federal complaint that graphically details the charges. He was 51 at the time.

Communications between Mell and the minor soon became sexual when Mell asked the girl “if she knew how to perform oral sex.” He later invited her to spend time alone with him at his home.

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Mell again “performed sex acts” on the minor on July 5, 2017, according to the complaint. He purchased an emergency contraceptive pill for her the next day.

On July 20, 2017, Mell flew with her in his private plane from Somerset Airport in New Jersey to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, “for the purpose of engaging in illicit conduct, specifically, a sexual act with a person under the age of eighteen.”

On the flight back, Mell put the aircraft in autopilot mode and “engaged in sex acts” with the minor, the complaint says.

Throughout August 2017, Mell asked the girl to send him text messages, Snapchat photos or FaceTime video chats of images of the minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Staff Writer Nick Muscavage is an award-winning watchdog reporter whose work spans many topics and has spurred the creation of a state law. Contact him: 908-243-6615; ngmuscavage@gannettnj.com; @nmuscavage.

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