A choir leader who served at three Gloucester County churches since the early 1990s has been charged with sex offenses against two teenage girls who sang in two of the choirs.

Frederick L. Cooper, 51, of the 100 block of Andy Snyder Boulevard in Deptford, was charged Friday with one count of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact. A conviction on the charges could result in a prison term of more than 20 years.

Cooper, a former car salesman in Woodbury, is being held in the Gloucester County Jail in Woodbury on $100,000 cash bail, set by Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson.

Bernie Weisenfeld, spokesman for the county prosecutor's office, said the aggravated sexual assault stemmed from a 1992 incident involving digital penetration of one girl when she was 15 years old. The girl was a member of the choir at the Mount Zion Wesley United Methodist Church on Glassboro Road in Deptford at the time.

The criminal sexual contact allegedly occurred in 2003 with a 16-year-old girl who was in a choir at the Spoken Word Evangelistic Church on South Evergreen Avenue in Woodbury.

Cooper, who is separated from his wife, was a choir director at the Deptford church from 1992 to 1998. After that he led a choir at Spoken Word and later at another church, the Mount Zion AME Church in Swedesboro.

The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information about other potential victims should contact Woodbury Police Detective Michael Magee at 856-845-0065 or Detective Josephine Mendez of the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Unit at 856-384-5609.

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