Registered sex offender charged with new child pornography charges

BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Alexander Grupp, 31, of Lancaster, NY, was charged by criminal complaint with attempted enticement and attempted production of child pornography. The charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin M. Higgins, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, in November 2022, the FBI received a phone call from Erie County Probation requesting assistance regarding Grupp, a probationer and New York State level 2 sex offender.      A probation officer advised that she seized a laptop from Grupp after he admitted to her that he was enticing minors to produce child pornography through the mobile application Discord. Investigators searched the laptop and recovered conversations sexual in nature and sexually explicit images exchanged between Grupp and a 15-year-old girl (Victim) on Discord.

Grupp made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer and was detained.

The complaint is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia, the Town of Tonawanda Police Department, under the direction of Chief James Stauffiger, and the Erie County Probation Department, under the direction of Commissioner Richard B. Robillard.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.    

# # # #