Man Repeatedly Sexually Assaulted Child In Bergen County 35 Years Ago: Prosecutor

FAIR LAWN, NJ — A Sussex County man was arrested on Thursday for sexually assaulting a child in Fair Lawn several times in the 1990s, prosecutors said.

Peter F. Knipe, 73, of Vernon, was charged with aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault, said the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office on Friday.

Prosecutors said that on May 26, the Fair Lawn Police Department contacted the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit regarding the alleged sexual assault of a minor that occurred in the past.

An investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Fair Lawn Police Department determined that Knipe sexually assaulted the victim in Fair Lawn on more than one occasion between Dec. 2, 1990 and Dec. 31, 1991.

A police complaint obtained by Patch details a series of incidents in which Knipe allegedly penetrated the girl's vagina with his finger, forced her to touch his penis, and touched her private parts.

The victim was under 13 at the time of the assaults, the report says.

Knipe was charged on Thursday with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and with three counts of second-degree sexual assault, prosecutors said.

He was taken to the Bergen County Jail to await a first appearance in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, prosecutors said.

The Statute of Limitations for reporting most types of childhood sexual assaults was eliminated in New Jersey in 1996, according to the state.