Troy Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Jake Alexander Cruse, age 33, of Troy, New York, pled guilty today to charges of distributing, transporting and receiving child pornography.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and Susan Ferensic, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea, Cruse admitted that, between July and October 2018, he used a phone equipped with various Internet-based instant messaging and file-sharing applications to trade child pornography with others.  Cruse admitted to creating multiple fake social media accounts for the purposes of making money selling child pornography and trading for additional child pornography files.  Cruse’s phone and various online accounts contained approximately 120 video files and 234 image files depicting child pornography.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 15, 2020 before United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino.

Cruse faces a minimum term of imprisonment of 5 years, and a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.  The Court is also required to impose a term of supervised release of between 5 years and life, and Cruse will be required to register as a sex offender.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors

This case was investigated by the FBI, with assistance from the New York State Police, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Emmet O’Hanlon.

Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and is designed to marshal 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.