Eleven Individuals Arrested as Part of Project Safe Childhood Initiative

ALBANY, NY—Andrew T. Baxter, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, Harry J. Corbitt, Superintendent, New York State Police (NYSP), John F. Pikus, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division; Lev J. Kubiak, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Investigation in Buffalo; and James Parmley, United States Marshal for the Northern District of New York, announced today that during this past week, 17 search warrants were executed and 11 individuals were arrested in the Northern District of New York in connection with their online activities involving child pornography. The following information was released with respect to the arrests announced today:

• JOHN DERRIGO, 58 of Adams Center, New York (Jefferson County), was charged with the receipt and possession of child pornography. DERRIGO was arrested on Tuesday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate David Peebles in Syracuse for his initial appearance, and was detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for July 27, 2009. If convicted, DERRIGO faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• WILLIAM BIRTWELL, age 37 of Cortland, New York, (Cortland County), was charged with the receipt and possession of child pornography. BIRTWELL was arrested on Tuesday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate David Peebles in Syracuse for his initial appearance, and was detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for July 27, 2009. If convicted, BIRTWELL faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• LORELEI PITTSLEY, age 33 of Cortland, New York, (Cortland County), was charged with the receipt and possession of child pornography. PITTSLEY was arrested on Tuesday at the home she shared with BIRTWELL after the execution of a search warrant. She appeared before U.S. Magistrate David Peebles in Syracuse for her initial appearance, and was detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for July 27, 2009. If convicted, PITTSLEY faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• JON VELAZQUEZ, age 43 of Cortland, New York,(Cortland County), was charged with the receipt and possession of child pornography. VELAZQUEZ was arrested on Tuesday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate David Peebles in Syracuse for his initial appearance, and was detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for July 27, 2009. If convicted, VELAZQUEZ faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• JEFFREY BENNETT, age 21 of Fulton, New York,(Oswego County), was charged with the distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography. BENNETT was arrested on Tuesday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate David Peebles in Syracuse for his initial appearance, and was detained pending trial. If convicted, BENNETT faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• RICHARD WEBSTER, age 40 of Binghamton, New York,(Broome County), was charged with the receipt of child pornography. WEBSTER was arrested on Tuesday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy in Binghamton for his initial appearance, and was detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for July 27, 2009. If convicted, WEBSTER faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• SHAWN BUTCHER, age 35 of Wynantskill, New York, (Rensselaer County), was charged with the distribution and receipt of child pornography. BUTCHER was arrested on Tuesday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Randolph F. Treece in Albany for his initial appearance, and was released pending trial on various conditions including home detention. If convicted, BUTCHER faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• SCOTT PURCELL, 21 of Johnstown, New York (Fulton County), was charged with the receipt and possession of child pornography. PURCELL was arrested on Thursday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Randolph F. Treece in Albany for his initial appearance. If convicted, PURCELL faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• JOSHUA STANFILL, age 23 of Schenectady, New York (Schenectady County), was charged with the distribution and receipt of child pornography. STANFILL was arrested on Thursday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Randolph F. Treece in Albany for his initial appearance on Thursday, and was released pending trial on various conditions including home detention and electronic monitoring. If convicted, STANFILL faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• BRUCE E. SMITH, age 48 of Adirondack, New York (Warren County), was charged with the receipt of child pornography and being a felon in possession of a firearm. SMITH was arrested on Thursday at his home after the execution of a search warrant. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Randolph F. Treece in Albany for his initial appearance on Thursday, and was released pending trial on various conditions including home detention, electronic monitoring, and the posting of bail in the amount of $20,000.00. If convicted, SMITH faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime term of supervised release.
• KEVIN PRESTON, age 18 of Rensselaer, New York, (Rensselaer County), was charged with the possession of material depicting the sexual performance of a child. A search warrant was executed at PRESTON’s residence on Thursday. He was given an appearance ticket to appear in East Greenbush Town Court on July 30, 2009. If convicted, PRESTON faces a maximum penalty of 1 1/3 - 3 years.

Investigations concerning the execution of the remaining six search warrants are continuing.

These investigations were initiated by NYS’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the United States Attorney’s Office. The ICAC program is a federally funded nationwide network of law enforcement agencies designed to combat the threat of child exploitation on the Internet. The NYS ICAC is a regional law enforcement task force with members from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The NYSP, the NYS Attorney General’s Office, and NYS’s Division of Criminal Justice Services operate this program. The NYSP ICAC Task Force Commander is Captain Frank Pace of the NYSP Computer Crime Unit. The ICAC program targets individuals who use the Internet to entice children for sexual purposes, as well as those who manufacture, distribute, receive, and possess child pornography.

New York State Police Superintendent Harry J. Corbitt said: “Anyone involved in child pornography, promoting the acts of child predators, and those who perform predatory acts against children, must understand that such crimes will not be tolerated. Multi-jurisdictional police task forces work diligently to protect children by thoroughly investigating and prosecuting these illicit activities.”

U.S. Attorney Baxter stated: “These prosecutions, arising from joint investigations by a variety of federal, state, 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.” These investigations are also part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. This initiative 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 this initiative is to enhance the national response to the growing threat to America’s youth posed by online sexual solicitation, abuse, and child pornography. To further the goals of this program, the U.S. Marshals service recently deputized 27 NYSP investigators as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals, making them members of the U.S. Marshals’ New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, Sex Offender Investigation Branch.

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 Baxter 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.

Individuals with information pertaining to any criminal activities involving these individuals should contact New York State Police Senior Investigator William Gray at (518) 457-8812, or Project Safe Childhood Coordinator Thomas Spina Jr. at (518)431-0247.

The case was investigated by the NYS ICAC Task Force, including the New York State Attorney General’s Office, the NYSP Computer Crimes Unit, NYSP troops C, D, F, G, K, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber-Predator Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Marshals Service, the Ulster and Rensselaer County Sheriffs’ Departments, the Bethlehem, Troy, Schenectady, Niskayuna, and East Greenbush Police Departments, and the United States Secret Service.