Gowanda Man Sentenced for Traveling Across State Lines with Intent to Engage in Sexual Activity with a Minor

BUFFALO, NY—Mark Miller, 41, of Gowanda, New York, who was convicted of interstate travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct on November 16, 2009, was sentenced to 70 months in prison and five years of supervised release by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter of the Western District of New York announced today. Miller will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti, who handled the case, stated that between December 4, 2008 and March 1, 2009, in the Western District of New York and elsewhere, the defendant communicated with an individual who he believed was the mother of a 13-year-old girl. During these conversations, the defendant made arrangements to meet the mother and her daughter in New Waterford, Ohio to engage in sexual activity with both of them. On February 28, 2009, the defendant traveled from Gowanda, New York to Erie, Pennsylvania and the following day from Erie, Pennsylvania to New Waterford, Ohio to meet the mother and her 13-year-old daughter to engage in sexual intercourse with both of them.

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 conviction was the culmination of an investigation on the part of the New Waterford Police Department in Ohio, the Gowanda Police Department, special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Buffalo Field Office Cyber Squad under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson, and the Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory under the direction of Robert Kosakowski.