Ulster County Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Offenses

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Nicholas Rockwell, age 26, of Hurley, New York, pled guilty today to distributing, receiving, and possessing child pornography.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Thomas F. Relford, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea, Rockwell admitted that on October 11, 2019, he used a social media messaging application to send and receive numerous child pornography videos to another man over the Internet.  Rockwell also admitted that at the time of his federal arrest on December 19, 2019, he possessed on his iPhone and in two cloud-based storage accounts approximately 281 images and 1,848 videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children.  

Sentencing is scheduled for April 1, 2021, before Chief U.S. District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby.  Rockwell, who has been ordered detained since his federal arrest, faces a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison, with a maximum of up to 20 years in prison on each count, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of at least 5 years and up to life. 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.  Rockwell will also be required to register as a sex offender. 

This case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua R. Rosenthal.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s offices, 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 identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.