Heights electronics store owner sentenced to 6 years for molesting young fan of 'Barbie' Web site

Saturday, October 30, 2010
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A slimeball sex fiend who blamed the "devil" for molesting a 9-year-old girl was sentenced to six years in a state hospital yesterday after his lawyer blamed the pre-teen victim.

Rene Mejia, 54, of Jersey City, who owned and operated an electronics store in the Heights had told investigators "sometimes the devil knocks on your door," referring to the sexual assaults that began when the girl was 9 and continued over a three-year period, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Dill said.

The molestation occurred when the girl visited his store to use his computer to visit Barbie.com, authorities said. Mejia, 54, of Virginia Avenue, was arrested on Sept. 11, 2009.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale ordered Mejia to serve more than five years before becoming eligible for parole. His sentence will be served at the Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton, a 200-bed psychiatric hospital.

The prosecutor said the state had sought a considerably longer term but opted for the plea deal to spare the victim the trauma of a trial.

Mejia's lawyer, Leonard Meyerson, arguing yesterday for a five-year sentence, tried to shift at least some of the responsibility to the victim.

"Can a 13-year-old girl manipulate a situation to get anything she wants?" said Myerson, who noted that Mejia has never been in trouble before and has been married 20 years. "Are we living in the same times we were 30 years ago?"

Dill called Mejia a "cold, calculating predator."

The prosecutor asked for seven years. DePascale split the difference.

The owner of BP Electronics has been diagnosed as a "repetitive and compulsive offender" and his incarceration can be extended as long as he is considered a risk. When released, he must register as a sex offender under Megan's Law and he will be supervised for life.

The victim lived near Mejia's store and "was a shy introverted girl who was selected for that reason - for her vulnerability," Dill said. "The defendant had convinced her that if she came forward, she would be blamed."

After some time the victim's mother began suspecting something. On one occasion when the girl said she was going to visit her grandmother, the mother called that residence and learned she wasn't there. The mother went to Mejia's store and found it closed. She began banging on the door and eventually the girl and her molester opened up and walked out.

Mejia denied everything at first, but later cooperated with investigators, pleaded guilty, and now says he wants treatment.