Selkirk Man Sentenced for Receiving Child Pornography

ALBANY, NY—United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and John F. Pikus, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, announced that KEVIN FRONE, age 57, of Selkirk, New York, was sentenced on December 13, 2010 by the Honorable Thomas J. McAvoy in Federal District Court in Albany on his guilty plea to count one of an information charging him with the receipt of child pornography. FRONE was sentenced to 96 months of imprisonment and supervised release for a term of life. He was also ordered to: (1) have no unsupervised contact with minors; and (2) register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry Program. The court also ordered that three computers and an external hard drive be forfeited to the United States.

FRONE pled guilty on April 19, 2010. In connection with his plea, FRONE admitted the following in a written plea agreement and during his plea proceeding:

Between about December 2004 and February 2009, FRONE, while in his residence, used various computers to access the Internet. While on the Internet, FRONE downloaded and installed a file sharing program called "Google Hello" onto said computers. Google Hello is known as a peer-to-peer file-sharing program and it allows Internet users to trade and receive digital files from other users of computers with the same file sharing program.

While using the Google Hello program and the e-mail address gs71stage1@yahoo.com and screen name littlegirl119vt, FRONE obtained several electronic files containing still images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Additionally, FRONE obtained electronic files containing still image and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct by visiting various child pornography websites. FRONE typically downloaded such still images and videos to the aforementioned computers and saved said images to an Iomega external hard drive.

In or about July, 2007 investigators identified FRONE's e-mail address of gs71stage1@yahoo.com and screen name littlegirl119vt as having traded or received child pornography with/from other consumers of child pornography. Investigators then obtained the IP address assigned to the aforementioned Internet account and found that said IP address belonged to Time Warner Cable. Investigators determined that the IP address was being used by someone residing at the defendant's residence in Selkirk, New York.

On February 9, 2009, investigators executed a federal search warrant at FRONE's residence in Selkirk, New York. Investigators seized the computers and a Iomega external hard drive referenced above. The seized items were searched and forensic examinations of the aforementioned computers and external hard drive, all of which belonged to the defendant, were conducted. Approximately 500 still images and 100 movie files which depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as those terms and phrases are defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 2256(2), were recovered from the Iomega external hard drive. Said images depict individuals under the age of 18 engaged in, among other things, vaginal sex, oral sex, anal sex, sado-masochistic conduct, masturbation, and the lascivious exhibition of the genitals and pubic area. All of the images recovered depict actual, as opposed to computer generated, images of minors engaged in such conduct. A number of these images depict prepubescent minors engaged in such conduct.

On or about February 9, 2009 FRONE was interviewed by law enforcement officials. During this interview, he stated, among other things, that:

i. He used the aforesaid computers to search for and access child pornography via websites on the Internet and Google Hello;
ii. He downloaded child pornography as a "sexual release";
iii. He saved some of the child pornography still images and movie files that he received via the Internet into an electronic folder entitled "pictures" on his Iomega external hard drive; and
iv. That he had been accessing and downloading child pornography on the Internet for approximately one year.

This case was investigated by the FBI's Capital Region Cyber Predator Task Force.