Corning Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

ROCHESTER—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Bryan Griswold, 21, of Corning, New York, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography before U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who is handling the case, stated that in June 2009, an investigator from the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit was conducting an investigation involving peer-to-peer file sharing of images of children being sexually exploited and abused. The investigation led law enforcement to the defendant’s residence in Corning in August 2009. Griswold admitted that he downloaded child pornography from the Internet using the Limewire peer-to-peer file sharing program. Griswold possessed more than 600 images of child pornography.

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 the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the direction of Christopher M. Piehota, Special Agent in Charge; the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit, under the direction of Captain Frank Pace; and the Steuben County District Attorney’s Office, under the direction of District Attorney Brooks Baker.

Sentence is scheduled for August 13, 2012 at 10a.m. before Judge Larimer.