Arkport Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Daniel J. Lasnick, 47, of Arkport, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa, to knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography. The charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison, a maximum of 10 years, a fine of $250,000, and a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to life.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who is handling the case, stated that the defendant received and distributed images and videos of child pornography through the use of a peer-to-peer file-sharing network. Lasnick possessed in excess of 600 images and videos of child pornography, some of which depicted children under the age of 12 years old.

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 plea was the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent In Charge James H. Robertson, and investigators of the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Matthew Renneman.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 8 at 9:15 a.m. EST in Rochester, N.Y., before Judge Siragusa.