Ulster County Man Sentenced to 210 Months for Child Pornography Offenses

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Nicholas Rockwell, age 27, of Hurley, New York, was sentenced today to serve 210 months in prison for distributing, receiving and possessing 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 previously entered 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 2,000 images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children.  

In additional to the term of imprisonment, Chief United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby imposed a 20-year term of supervised release, which will follow the term of incarceration, and ordered Rockwell to pay a total of $18,000 in restitution to six victims.  Rockwell will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison. 

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