Anthony Watkins Sentenced to a 233-Month Term of Incarceration

ALBANY, NY—RICHARD S. HARTUNIAN, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York; Robert M. Carney, District Attorney, Office of the Schenectady County District Attorney; and John F. Pikus, Special Agent In Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, announced today that ANTHONY WATKINS, age 50, of Schenectady, New York, was sentenced by the Honorable Lawrence E. Kahn in Federal Court on his guilty plea to Count 1 of a superseding indictment charging WATKINS with the transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a). WATKINS was sentenced to a 233-month term of imprisonment and was ordered to serve a lifetime term of supervised release.

As summarized in the government’s sentencing memorandum, on November 1, 2008, WATKINS drove in a stolen car from Schenectady, New York, to meet a 15-year-old female (“Jane Doe”) in another state for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with Jane Doe. WATKINS had previously met Jane Doe using an Internet social networking website where he proceeded to engage in online and telephone conversations with Jane Doe that were highly sexualized. During these conversations, WATKINS repeatedly described his desire to have sexual relations with Jane Doe and graphically explained to Jane Doe how he would engage in sexual relations with her. On November 1, 2008, after learning that WATKINS was nearby, Jane Doe left her house and met WATKINS near her home. Later on November 1, 2008, the defendant drove Jane Doe to Schenectady, New York. As the defendant was homeless, the defendant and Jane Doe subsequently spent the evening of November 2, 2008, in a dugout at the Schenectady County Community College and engaged in additional sexual activity throughout the evening.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The case was investigated by the Office of the Schenectady County District Attorney, the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office, the Schenectady Police Department, the Rotterdam Police Department, the New York State Police, the Connecticut State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.