Christopher J. McKenna, 37, pleaded guilty to the third-degree crime of wrongful access and disclosure of information.
TRENTON -- A Mercer County sheriff's officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawfully providing a newspaper with arrest photos last year of a juvenile teenager who had been shot by police in Trenton, authorities announced.
Christopher J. McKenna, 37, of Hamilton, pleaded guilty to the third-degree crime of wrongful access and disclosure of information in Burlington County Superior Court in Mount Holly as part of a plea agreement with the state Attorney General's office.
The agreement calls for McKenna to forfeit his job as a sheriff's officer and be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey, the Attorney General's office said in a statement.
Prosecutors will also recommend that McKenna be sentenced to up to 364 days in a county jail as a condition of probation when he is sentenced in July.
In court, McKenna admitted that he accessed a restricted law enforcement database to obtain three arrest photos of a juvenile and provided the photos to a newspaper reporter for The Trentonian, in August 2015.
The newspaper published the three photos with a story that named the juvenile in the photos and included details of the teen's prior arrests, the statement said.
Juvenile photos and records are sealed and it is illegal for police to distribute them to the public, the Attorney General's office said.
Sheriff's officer indicted for distributing juvenile's mug shots
The Attorney General's office has never publicly named the teen, but he was identified by family members last year as Radazz Hearns.
Hearns was charged with aggravated assault, possession of a handgun and possession of a defaced firearm following an Aug. 7, 2015 confrontation with police in North Trenton.
State authorities alleged he pointed a gun at the officers as he ran. The teen was shot several times by two officers, one a Mercer sheriff's officer and one a state trooper.
The shooting drew widespread attention, public protests and repeated claims on the teen's behalf that he was unarmed during the incident.
Hearns pleaded guilty in January to possession of a defaced firearm during a proceeding in Mercer County Superior Court's Family Division, three law enforcement officers with knowledge of the outcome have said.
McKenna was indicted in January on the wrongful access and disclosure of information charge, as well as official misconduct. He was originally charged in October 2015 and suspended without pay from his position.
McKenna joined the Mercer sheriff's office in 2003 and was assigned to the Mercer County Criminal Courthouse.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.