Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Pittsford Man Charged with Distributing and Possessing Child Pornography

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that a federal grand jury in Rochester has returned a two-count indictment charging Jeffrey Bernecky, 22, of Pittsford, NY, with distributing and possessing child pornography. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who is handling the case, stated that a search warrant was executed at Bernecky’s residence on
Lehigh Station Road
in Pittsford by members of the FBI’s Cyber Crime Task Force. The search warrant occurred after undercover agents allegedly saw that the defendant appeared to be sharing and distributing over 6,000 files totaling over 107 gigabytes of data, which included numerous files and videos with titles indicative of child pornography. Bernecky admitted to downloading images and movies of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct using the file-sharing software.

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 indictment is the culmination of an investigation on the part of the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Task Force, which includes the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn, and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of James H. Robertson, Special Agent in Charge.

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.

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