Castleton Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

Andrew T. Baxter, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, and John F. Pikus, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, announced that PAUL S. EASTMAN , age 42, of Castleton, New York, was sentenced today by the Honorable Norman A. Mordue in Federal Court in Albany on his guilty plea to count one of an Indictment charging him with the possession of child pornography. EASTMAN was sentenced to 97 months imprisonment and ordered to serve a lifetime term of supervised release. He also was ordered to (1) have no unsupervised contact with minors; (2) participate in a sex offender program; and (3) register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry Program. The court also ordered that computer equipment be forfeited to the United States.

EASTMAN pled guilty on September 30, 2008. In connection with his plea, EASTMAN admitted the following in a written plea agreement and during his plea proceeding:

On February 16, 2007, an undercover agent, utilizing the peer to peer (P2P) file sharing program known as “LimeWire”, searched this network for child pornography. P2P file sharing is a method of communication available to Internet users through the use of special software. Computers linked together through the Internet using this software form a network that allows for the sharing of digital files between users on the network. A user first obtains the P2P software, which can be downloaded from the internet. In general, P2P software allows the user to set up file(s) on a computer to be shared with others running compatible P2P software. A user obtains files by opening the P2P software on the user’s computer, and conducting a search for files that are currently being shared on the network. “LimeWire”, one type of P2P software, sets up its searches by keyword. The results of the keyword search are displayed to the user. The user then selects file(s) from the results for download. The download of a file is achieved through a direct connection between the computer requesting the file and the computer containing the file. The undercover officer eventually determined a computer located at EASTMAN’S residence contained child pornography.

On or about May 9, 2007, a federal search warrant was executed at EASTMAN’S residence in the Northern District of New York, and a HP Pavilion computer and numerous computer disks used by EASTMAN were recovered. Forensic examinations of these computer disks and computer were subsequently conducted. Approximately 600-700 still images and seven computer videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct...were recovered from said disks and computer. Said images depict individuals under the age of 18 engaged in, among other things, vaginal intercourse, oral sex, anal sex, masturbation and the lascivious exhibition of the genitals and pubic area. Images were also recovered which depict...naked bound minors and a female minor wearing a collar and bound with chains. All of the images recovered depict actual, as opposed to computer generated, images of minors engaged in such conduct. Many of these images depict prepubescent minors engaged in such conduct.

EASTMAN was subsequently interviewed by law enforcement officials. During the interview, he stated, among other things, that he used a computer and the peer to peer software “LimeWire” to search for child pornography. He also stated that he has a problem with child pornography because he keeps on searching for and downloading it knowing that it is wrong to do so.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Capital Region Cyber Predator Task Force and the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Department.