Canandaigua Man Charged in Child Pornography Case

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Michael Clark, 30, of Canandaigua, New York, was charged with knowing receipt of child pornography. The charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison, a maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine of $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who is handling the case, stated that according to the criminal complaint, a search warrant was executed at Clark’s residence on Chapel Street in Canandaigua by members of the New York State Police’s Computer Crimes Unit. The search warrant was obtained after an undercover investigator downloaded images of child pornography from the Internet Protocol address assigned to the Chapel Street address.

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 complaint is the culmination of an investigation on the part of the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Task Force, which includes the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn; special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Richard W. Kollmar, Special Agent in Charge; and the New York State Police’s Computer Crimes Unit, under the direction of Captain Frank Pace.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.