September 10, 2014

Connecticut Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

BOSTON—A Cromwell, Conn. man pleaded guilty yesterday to child exploitation charges in federal court in Bridgeport.

Samuel DiProto, 63, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer to receiving child pornography. DiProto was charged in March 2013. Sentencing is scheduled for December 2, 2014.

From 2009 through March 2013, DiProto downloaded child pornography from the Internet. A Connecticut State Police detective discovered DiProto’s child pornography after logging into a publicly available Internet file sharing network. The investigator discovered downloaded images and videos of child pornography from a computer connected to the network with an Internet Protocol (IP) address assigned to DiProto.

DiProto’s conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. The statutory maximum penalty is 20 years in prison to be followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Patricia M. Ferrick, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Connecticut State Police Colonel Brian F. Meraviglia made the announcement today.

This matter was investigated by the Connecticut State Police Computer Crimes Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Connecticut Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Paul Smyth, Chief of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Unit, and Assistant United States Attorney Neeraj N. Patel in the District of Connecticut.

The case is brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.