Attica Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charge

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Paul J. Havlen, Jr., 48 of Attica, New York, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara, to attempting to receive child pornography.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen A. Lynch and Paul J. Campana, who are handling the case, stated the defendant posted an ad on Craigslist seeking a young man who was interested in smoking marijuana and engaging in sexual activities. Between October 26, 2011 and December 19, 2011, Havlen engaged in graphic e-mail and text exchanges with a person he believed to be a 15-year-old boy. During those chats, the defendant asked the 15-year-old for pictures and made arrangements to meet him at a park in Attica. The individual that Havlen was actually chatting with was an undercover police officer, and the defendant was arrested after he drove to the area of the park on December 19, 2011.

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 special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Brian P. Boetig, Special Agent in Charge, and the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Department, under the direction of Acting Sheriff Gregory J. Rudolph.