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The former Rutgers football player charged in a series of home invasion and armed robberies has cut a deal that calls for 15 year state prison sentence. 

Tejay Johnson, 26, of Egg Harbor Township, admitted to his role in the robberies, during which the group stole cash and drugs, sometimes at gunpoint, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said in a release.

Johnson pleaded guilty last week before Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves to three counts of armed robbery, three counts of armed burglary and three counts of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, authorities said.

The former Scarlett Knight football player was charged along with 14 other former university players and students in 2015 as part of an investigation into three armed robberies and an assault in New Brunswick in Piscataway.

The case, which included seven Rutgers football players, contributed to the firing of former coach Kyle Flood, as well as the forced resignation of athletic director Julie Hermann.  

Johnson rejected the same plea deal last July. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Tuesday in Johnson’s case.

The deal calls for the dismissal of charges connected to an assault on Delafield Street in 2015 over a parking spot, authorities said. 

Johnson will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole. 

Attorneys sparred for months of the use of Johnson’s cell phone as evidence in the case. The phone allegedly contained a trove of information connecting those charged in the robberies, according to prosecutors. 

Nieves ruled in June that the data on Johnson’s cell phone would be admissible at trial. 

Andre Boggs, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and Lloyd Terry Jr., of Wrightstown, both former football players, were also charged in the string of robberies, however, their attorneys last year had asked for delays until Johnson’s case had been resolved. 

Kaylanna Ricks, who was accused of being the getaway driver in an unsuccessful robbery, previously rejected a plea deal requiring her to testify in the case against Johnson. 

The current statuses of their cases were not immediately available. 

Another ex-football player, Jamil C. Pollard, 23, of Woodbury, admitted last year to his role in breaking into a Davidson Hall dorm room on the Busch Campus on Dec. 14, 2014, and swiping marijuana and cash from the student. 

Craig McCarthy may be reached at 732-372-2078 or at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The sentencing of 21-year-old Connor Neurauter was supposed to be the end of a long and difficult road for a Kamloops girl and her mother. 

Neurauter, who pleaded guilty Jan. 4 in Kamloops provincial court to a single count of sexual interference with a person under 16, was sentenced to 90 days behind bars — a sentence that won’t begin until May to avoid interfering with his studies at the University of Calgary. 

To the mother, who can’t be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban intended to protect the identity of the victim, the delayed sentencing was the latest concession in what she described as a series of delays and adjournments, which she said were intended to accommodate Neurauter’s busy schedule. 

“It’s been two years — all of these court dates extended, extended, extended,” she said, breaking down in tears. 

“Because of . . . why? ‘Sorry, he’s unavailable for court because he has a hockey tournament. He’s unavailable for court because he has exams. He’s unavailable to come do his plea on his own because he’s in the middle of studying.’

“Let’s postpone his jail sentence until May so he can finish his year of university. Nobody has stood up and said no, during the whole thing — there was not one time where the judge or even the Crown said ‘please, this is not right.’ The victims are the ones who have been paying over and over, every time we went to court.”

Neurauter, who was 18 at the time, was charged in 2016 in connection with an inappropriate relationship he had with a 13-year-old Kamloops girl.

The girl’s mother told Postmedia neither the sentence nor the conviction reflect the true nature of the crime. 

“They make it sound like they were having some sort of non-intercourse sexual relationship — that she was having an affair with an older boy,” she said. 

While the exact details are protected under the publication ban, the victim’s mother is incensed over implications made on social media her daughter was a willing participant in the relationship with Neurauter. 

Under Canadian law, the minimum age to legally consent to sexual activity is 16. 

She described the relationship as a violation of trust by someone her quiet and reserved daughter had looked up to as a big-brother figure.

The victim, her mother said, acquiesced in his demands for nude photos as a desperate measure of self-protection.

“The reason my daughter started sending photos was so that, hopefully, when he requested them, he would not want to see her in person because she was afraid to be with him,” she said. 

“Even in her statement to the court, she said it was much easier to deal with him over a screen than it was in person, and she felt safer.”

Once Neurauter had those photos, he then used the threat of sharing them with others as a means to further control the girl.

The victim eventually confided in her 14-year-old best friend — who began sending nude photos of herself to Neurauter in an attempt to lure him away from the victim. 

Police became involved after the 14-year-old girl informed her mother of the situation. 

During the trial, the 13-year-old’s mother said she and her daughter grew frustrated over delays and adjournments, which the mother said were made to make the process more convenient to Neurauter, who played junior hockey at various levels until 2016, including a stint overseas in Sweden.

On Sept. 23, 2016, Kamloops This Week reported Neurauter — initially charged with sexual interference and possession of child pornography — had a lawyer appear on his behalf during a hearing to request his arraignment be delayed until the following month because he was out of town attending a hockey camp.

Danielle Aubry, executive director with Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse, expressed concern over the court’s concessions to Neurauter, given increasing awareness of sexual abuse bias and myths over sexual violence within the justice system. 

“This decision serves to give messages to people that sexual violence is not a serious crime within some segments of the justice system — that the perpetrator’s needs come first and that survivors have little voice within a system that generally already feels quite unsafe for people who experience sexual violence,” she said.

“This decision continues to feed into the reason why Canada has a six per cent reporting rate of sexual violence crimes.”

While the mother said much of the anger surrounds the delayed jail sentence, she’s satisfied her daughter will enjoy at least a modicum of justice. 

“I understood from the get-go that our main goal in doing all of this was to get him some kind of jail time, and to make sure he was listed as a sexual offender,” she said. “I feel the Crown met those goals — the fact that he got jail time was, honestly, almost a bonus.”

The plea deal, which the victim’s mother said dropped the child pornography charge in exchange for a guilty plea for sexual interference, fulfilled both needs. 

Neurauter is also on two-years probation, preventing him from contacting his victims, being in the presence of anyone under age 16 without supervision or visiting public parks and pools.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years and to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.

The mother also hopes her daughter’s ordeal will help others dealing with similar circumstances, and is immensely proud of the strength and courage the young girl has shown throughout. 

“This whole #MeToo movement has been at our forefront every day for two years,” she said, her voice again breaking. 

“I’m grateful for those people that have come forward — for every person that comes forward, it just means one less person will get hurt.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume