Highland Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

BUFFALO—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Christopher F. Walker, Jr., 24, of Highland, New York, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara to possession of child pornography. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti, who is handling the case, stated that between December 2010 and April 2011, the defendant possessed child pornography on a Dell desktop computer at his residence in Fredonia, New York, where he lived at the time. The images were transmitted to the defendant in interstate commerce via the Internet.

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 is the culmination of an investigation on the part of the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit, under the direction of Captain Frank Pace; the Fredonia Police Department, under the direction of Chief Bradley Meyers; and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Christopher M. Piehota, Special Agent In Charge.

Sentencing is scheduled for October 25, 2012, at 12:30 p.m. before Judge Arcara.