Cop indicted for moo-ving violations

A Moorestown, N.J., police officer was indicted yesterday on sexual-assault and animal-cruelty charges for allegedly having sex on several occasions with girls and cows.

Officer Robert Melia Jr., 38, a patrolman in the Burlington County township, was arrested April 12, when investigators seized child pornography and his home computer.

Two weeks later, authorities filed animal-cruelty charges and official-misconduct charges against him, alleging that he had performed sexual acts on cows in rural Southampton, Burlington County, several times in 2006.

The Burlington County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on the indictment yesterday, or to elaborate on Melia's alleged trysts with livestock.

The investigation began earlier in April, when one of three juvenile females told her stepfather that Melia and his girlfriend, Heather Lewis, 33, of Pemberton, Burlington County, had sexually assaulted her repeatedly inside Melia's home on Cottage Avenue over a five-year period, the prosecutor's office said.

Lewis also was arrested April 12, and also was indicted yesterday and charged with sexually assaulting the three juvenile girls.

She, too, was indicted on sexual-assault charges, those stemming from an incident with a juvenile male.

In total, both Melia and Lewis were indicted on 45 counts of sexual assault.

They could spend the rest of their lives in prison if convicted of the charges, the prosecutor's office said.

An arraignment in Superior Court has not been scheduled.

A spokesman for the Moorestown Police Department said that Melia remains suspended.

Melia was released on bail after his arrest.

Lewis is being held on $300,000 bail at the women's detention center in Pemberton Township.

Neither Melia nor his attorney could be reached for comment yesterday.