A New Jersey deputy attorney general was arrested and arraigned Thursday on felony charges alleging he used artificial intelligence to generate and distribute child sexual abuse material, and also shared real child sexual abuse material.
Brian Richard Fitzgerald, 51, of Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania, faces multiple felony counts, including possession of child sexual abuse material, dissemination of photos or film of child sexual abuse material, and criminal use of a communication facility.
According to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the investigation commenced after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) forwarded a CyberTip regarding a Discord user who shared an illicit image file on July 10, 2026.
Digital forensics and subscriber records subsequently linked the internet protocol addresses and account to Fitzgerald’s residence on Edgewood Road.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Fitzgerald’s home on Thursday, October 15, 2026, recovering prompts and scripts used to create artificially generated child sexual abuse material via an AI program.
Investigators stated that chat logs from Discord showed Fitzgerald—operating under the username thegentlemanpervert_2160_07833—admitted to generating and sharing multiple illicit images using artificial intelligence. Authorities added that Fitzgerald also acquired and shared real child sexual abuse material through another social media platform.
“No one is above the law, least of all someone entrusted with upholding it,” Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said in a statement. “Our office will pursue these cases aggressively and hold offenders fully accountable, regardless of their profession or title.”
Fitzgerald is a deputy attorney general for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, working in the Division of Law’s Banking and Insurance Section.
A Department of Law and Public Safety spokesperson said he has been employed there since May 2016 and that the agency is cooperating with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office while taking appropriate action on his employment status.
Following his arrest Thursday morning, Fitzgerald was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Corryn L. Kronnagel. The court set bail at 10% of $2 million and remanded him to the Bucks County Correctional Facility.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Oct. 27 before Kronnagel at the Morrisville magisterial district office.
Bucks County Detective Eric Landamia and Lower Makefield Detective Peter Lange investigated the case.
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