Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that James Paul Summers, 29, of Niagara Falls, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny to production and possession of child pornography. Production of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years. Possession of child pornography is punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, lifetime supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti, who is handling the case, stated that the defendant took pornographic images of a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old. Some of the images were taken in his apartment on Pierce Avenue in Niagara Falls and others were taken in a car. Summers also possessed child pornography on his computer that he obtained from the Internet.

In 1998, after being charged with attempting to abduct young girls on different occasions at the Wildwood Acres in the Town of Niagara and Leisure Acres in the Town of Lockport, Summers pleaded guilty to burglary. He was just 15 years old when he took a 4-year old out of her bedroom. Summers was sentenced to two 1/3 to seven years in state prison.

“This case should serve as a warning to anyone who may consider harming a child,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul. “Our office takes these crimes, which often have a lasting impact on victims, very seriously.”

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 is the culmination of an investigation on the part of Niagara County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Leonard Guagliano, under the direction of Sheriff James Voutour; the Niagara County District Attorney’s Office, under the direction of Michael J. Violante; special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Richard W. Kollmar; the New York State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force; the Western New York Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory; and the Buffalo Police Department under the direction of Commissioner Daniel Derenda.

Sentencing is scheduled for September 16, 2011, at 9:00 a..m. EST, in Buffalo, N.Y., before Judge Skretny.