Nunda Man Sentenced for Enticing a Child

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Timothy Wallace, 31, of Nunda, New York, who was convicted of using a facility of interstate commerce to entice a child and possessing child pornography, was sentenced to 17 years in prison and 25 years’ supervised release by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who handled the case, stated that the defendant used a cell phone to send text messages to a 13-year-old female child to entice her to engage in illegal sexual activity. Wallace admitted to officers that he texted the child for the purpose of meeting her and to have sex with her. Images of child pornography were found on the defendant’s cell phone. Wallace admitted to possessing the images, as well as having previously traded child pornography images.

U.S. Attorney Hochul stated, “This office will continue to target those who prey upon our children.”

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 sentencing is 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 Christopher M. Piehota, as well as Investigators with the New York State Police, under the direction of Superintendent Joseph D’Amico.