Stephen Bradley Mell, the New Jersey millionaire in prison for having sex with a teen in his private plane, has petitioned a federal court for a compassionate release due to concerns about the coronavirus and his health.
Mell, 54, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to one count of interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct and one count of child pornography.
The victim was allegedly 15 years old when Mell began a sexual relationship with her. Mell, however, claims in court papers she had passed her 16th birthday and that her family knew about their relationship.
Mell is serving time in a dormitory setting at the Allenwood Low Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, according to the petition he filed July 21 in U.S. District Court in Trenton.
Mell claims he has a terminal liver disease and other illnesses that make him “high risk” for death if he contracts COVID-19. He says the federal prison system has given out masks but otherwise done little else to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Requests for a compassionate release have already been denied by the warden and the federal Bureau of Prisons, Mell states in the petition, noting that he has “fully exhausted all his remedies” within the system.
Mell urges the federal courts to subpoena security video from inside the walls of Allenwood, which will show “what is actually occurring within the prison.”
“If Mell were released, he would be going from a prison environment of 1,200 inmates where social distancing is physically impossible to a home of one,” the petition states.
Mell says he plans to return to his 30-acre farm in Bedminster, where he lived in isolation in an apartment while out on bail for 14 months.
The 20-page petition also alleges that the prosecutors, the victim and her family lied and took facts out of context to make it appear Mell was more of a danger than he was.
Mell states it would have been impossible for him to place his plane on autopilot and engage in sexual activity with the girl because air-traffic control was in constant communication with him.
“The government failed to mention that per the FAA flight plan and voice communications with air traffic controllers there was no possible way the pilot (Mell) could have left the controls,” the petition states. “The risk of a fatal accident is almost a certainty if that were to occur.”
Mell, who goes by his middle name Bradley, had been president and chief executive of W.H. Mell Associates, a Summit-based investing firm that specialized in municipal bond markets.
Prosecutors said he traveled from July to December 2017 “for the purpose of engaging in the production of child pornography and sexual acts with a minor (and) admitted knowingly receiving child pornography.”
Mell began communicating with the teen in May 2017 through text messages and Snapchat and eventually asked her if she knew how to perform a sex act, according to the complaint. He invited her to his Far Hills home the next month. The two engaged in sexual conduct on June 20 and July 5, 2017, when Mell was 51 years old and the victim under 16 years old, court documents stated.
On July 20, 2017, Mell flew the girl in his private plane from Somerset Airport to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, “for the purpose of engaging in illicit conduct, specifically, a sexual act with a (minor),” according to the complaint.
On the flight back, Mell put the aircraft in autopilot and engaged in sex acts with the minor. He also received sexually explicit photos of the girl, according to prosecutors. But Mell states in the petition that the photos showed only nudity, which he said does not legally constitute pornography.
In addition to the prison term, Mell was sentenced to five years of supervised release, fined $40,000 and ordered to pay restitution of $35,200 and a Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act assessment of $5,000.
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