Skip to main content
Press Release

Elmira Man Indicted for Production of Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of New York
 

       ROCHESTER, N.Y.--U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that a federal grand jury in Rochester has returned a four-count indictment charging Shannon Lewis, 40, of Elmira, N.Y., with producing images of child pornography. The charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum penalty of 30 years, a fine of $250,000 or both.
 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who is handling the case, stated that according to the indictment, the defendant videotaped a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Specifically, Lewis is charged with filming the child while he and another adult male abused the child.  
 
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 indictment was the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Investigators with the Elmira Police Department, under the direction of Chief Michael Robertson. 
 

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.
Updated December 2, 2014