Herkimer County Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing and Receiving Child Pornography

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – John Patrick Galusha, age 31, of Ilion, New York, pled guilty today to distribution and receipt of child pornography. The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea before United States District Court Judge Brenda K. Sannes, Galusha admitted that in January 2022 he traded child pornography with others over a social media messaging application on his phone, distributing approximately 35 files in exchange for 163 images and 7 videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children.

When Galusha is sentenced on November 7, 2022, he faces at least five years and up to 20 years in prison for each of the distribution and receipt offenses. In addition, Galusha will be required to serve a term of supervised release of between five years and life after his term of imprisonment and will be required to register as a sex offender. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the statutes the defendant violated, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other actors.

This case was investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force, comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and Computer Crimes Unit (CCU) and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Gadarian.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.