Pittsford Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Jeffrey Bernecky, 23, of Pittsford, N.Y., who was convicted of the knowing possession and distribution of child pornography, was sentenced to 60 months in prison and 15 years’ supervised release by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who handled the case, stated that a search warrant was executed at Bernecky’s residence on Lehigh Station Road in Pittsford by the FBI’s Cyber Crime Task Force. The search warrant occurred after undercover agents saw that the defendant was sharing and distributing over 6,000 files totaling over 107 gigabytes of data which included numerous files and videos with titles indicative of child pornography. Bernecky admitted to downloading images and movies of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct using the file-sharing software.

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 was 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, and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Christopher M. Piehota, Special Agent in Charge.