Fulton County Man Sentenced For Producing And Possessing Child Pornography

Albany, New York — NATHAN BROWN, age 33, of Fulton County, New York, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Court Judge Gary L. Sharpe, in Albany to 720 months of imprisonment and a lifetime period of supervised release for producing and possessing child pornography still images and videos, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Nick DiNicola, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Albany. BROWN, who had entered guilty pleas on June 19, 2012, was also ordered to pay restitution to his victims, forfeit various computer equipment, have no unsupervised contact with minors, and to register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry Program.

Between January 2010 and November 2011, BROWN produced still images and videos of three different children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On March 9, 2012, pursuant to a federal search warrant, investigators searched BROWN’s residence and recovered several computers and smart phones. In addition to the child pornography images and videos actually produced by BROWN, over 150,000 still images and 1,500 videos containing child pornography, depicting children from throughout the nation, were recovered during the forensic examinations of the computer media seized.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in May 2006 to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. The goal of Project Safe Childhood is to enhance the national response to the growing threat to America’s youth posed by online sexual solicitation, abuse, and child pornography.

As technology improves and the Internet becomes more vast and accessible, the number of computer-facilitated sexual crimes against children continues to grow. According to one recent study, one in seven children, ages 10 to 17, who are regular Internet users, are sexually solicited online. That statistic translates to millions of kids at risk, and it suggests that there are thousands of offenders whom we have not yet identified and brought to justice. In order to address this problem, the Department of Justice initiated Project Safe Childhood which includes the following five core elements:

1. The creation of integrated partnerships of federal, state, and local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute offenders and identify, rescue, and assist victims;
2. Participation of these partnerships in coordinated national initiatives to pursue evidentiary leads sent out as a result of national operations;
3. Increased federal involvement in child exploitation cases so that all the resources of the federal government are brought to bear to ensure that investigations of online child exploitation crimes are effectively conducted and that offenders receive optimal punishment for their crimes;
4. Training of federal, state, and local law enforcement to ensure that law enforcement keeps up with technological advances; and
5. Increased efforts to raise community awareness and educate the public about the dangers facing children from sexual exploitation and abuse facilitated by technology.

U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian noted that, in the Northern District of New York, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and its federal, state, and local law enforcement partners are actively pursuing the various aspects of the Project Safe Childhood initiative. According to Mr. Hartunian, “these prosecutions, arising from joint investigations by federal and local law enforcement authorities, reflect our deep commitment to work together to target sexual abusers and pornographers who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable of our society–our children.”

Nick DiNicola, assistant special agent in charge of the HSI office in Albany, the office that led the investigation of BROWN, noted that “protecting children from dangerous sexual predators is one of HSI's highest priorities. Even commercial child pornography is not a victimless crime. Such crimes prey on the most vulnerable and innocent segment of society – our children.”

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from members of the New York State Police, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Customs & Border Protection Air Branch in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and HSI’s Cyber Crimes Center (C3) in Fairfax, Virginia.

LOCAL CONTACT:
Thomas Spina Jr.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Tel: (518) 431-0247