A Monmouth County man who allegedly had sex with a teenage girl in Atantic City and Toms River was released from jail Thursday.
The 2020 case already was indicted when Terrence Brennan Jr. was arrested last Friday.
Brennan, then 26, knew the girl was 15 when he picked her up at her home in Camden and drove her to Atlantic City on Dec. 5, 2020, according to text messages Assistant Atlantic County Prosecutor Paige Cramer said during his detention hearing.
The girl told police she met Brennan on the online chat site Omegle on Nov. 29, 2020, and then they continued to talk on Snapchat.
He picked her up that Dec. 5, and drove to Atlantic City where they parked near what she described as a lake. Once it was dark, the two engaged in sexual acts inside the vehicle, she said.
Brennan then took her to the Rainforest Cafe and It's Sugar candy store, both on the Boardwalk, where surveillance video captured them walking and holding hands, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
He then drove her to Toms River, where the two had sex on the ground in a wooded area, the affidavit states. The girl provided screenshots and videos of the conversations they had about what happened.
The girl told police that she was afraid to fall asleep in the car because she thought the defendant was going to kill her, Cramer alleged.
Defense attorney Ed Weinstock said he had no information indicating the relationship was anything but consensual, and that there were no charges alleging threats.
Weinstock instead pointed to the more than three years Brennan was free before his arrest, and the fact that this was his client's only interaction with law enforcement either before the charges or since.
The attorney noted dozens of character letters he received on his client's behalf, including about 20 he forwarded to the court.
"At some point I stopped attaching character letters because I got so many," Weinstock said, estimating about 50.
He said it was not just the quantity of the letters, but the quality, and included Brennan's current girlfriend, an ex-girlfriend and the ex's father.
Brennan's boss also attested to his employee's character. The man had Brennan watch his home when he went on vacation, and even gave Brennan a 10 percent equity in one of his pizza restaurants.
"I've never been more confident in any detention hearing I've ever done in a client's ability to appear," Weinstock said.
The judge found that, because Brennan does not have any criminal history, the state did not overcome the presumption of release.
