Home Buffalo Press Releases 2009 RIT Graduate Student Pleads Guilty to Receipt of Child Pornography
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RIT Graduate Student Pleads Guilty to Receipt of Child Pornography

U.S. Attorney’s Office October 27, 2009
  • Western District of New York (716) 843-5700

ROCHESTER, NY—Stephen M. Reber, 37, of Rochester, NY, pled guilty on October 27, 2009, before U.S. District Judge David J. Larimer, to a felony information charging him with one count of Receipt of Child Pornography, U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter for the Western District of New York announced today. The Receipt of Child Pornography charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Gestring, who handled the case, stated that Reber, a Graphic Design Graduate Student at Rochester Institute of Technology, was identified by the FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service after he visited known child pornography websites. During an interview, Reber admitted to Federal Agents that he had been downloading child pornography for several years. A forensic examination of his computer discovered over 600 images of child pornography. He was later arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Postal Inspectors.

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 was the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson and Postal Inspectors under Robert Malaby, Acting Inspector in Charge, Boston Division.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 26, 2010, in Rochester, NY, in front of U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer.

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