Albany County Man Pleads Guilty to Sexually Exploiting a Child and Child Pornography Offenses

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Douglas Fountain, age 30, of Colonie, New York, pled guilty today to eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of transportation of child pornography, and two counts of possession of child pornography.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and Kevin Kelly, Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). 

As part of his guilty plea, Fountain admitted that on eight occasions between July 2017 and July 2018, he used cell phones to create videos and images of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, some of which included Fountain engaging in sexual acts with the minor.  Fountain also admitted to sharing some of those images on a foreign, image-sharing website, and to possessing images of child pornography on his laptop computers, including images depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of pre-pubescent girls.

Sentencing is scheduled for December 11, 2019 in Albany before Senior United States District Judge, Thomas J. McAvoy.  Fountain faces at least 15 years and up to 30 years in prison on each of the sexual exploitation counts, between 5 and 20 years in prison on the transportation count, and up to 20 years in prison on each of the possession counts.  Fountain also can be sentenced to at least 5 years and up to lifetime post-imprisonment supervised release.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors. 

This case was investigated by HSI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia Giglio Suarez.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood.  Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and is designed to marshal federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.