R.I.T. Graduate Student Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison for Receiving Child Pornography

February 16, 2010 - ROCHESTER, NY—STEPHEN M. REBER, 38, of Rochester, NY, was sentenced to 63 months In prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer, United States Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter announced. Reber pled guilty in October to a felony information charging him with one count of Receipt of Child Pornography. He was also ordered to pay a $ 500 fine and register as a sex offender. Receipt of Child pornography carries a mandatory minimum period of 60 months in prison, a maximum penalty of 240 months in prison, fines of up to $250,000, and supervised release of up to life.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Gestring, who handled the case, stated that Reber, a Graphic Design Graduate Student at Rochester Institute of Technology, was identified by the F.B.I. and the United States Postal Inspection Service after he visited known child pornography websites while living in New Jersey and Rochester, New York. During an interview, Reber admitted to Federal Agents that he had been downloading child pornography for several years. A forensic examination of his computer discovered over 600 images of child pornography. He was later arrested by Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Postal Inspectors.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The sentence was the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson and Postal Inspectors under Robert Malaby, Acting Inspector in Charge, Boston Division.