Albany Man Sentenced for Distributing Child Pornography

Sentenced to 108 Months in Prison

ALBANY, NY—Leonard Gaines, age 56, of Albany, New York, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino, in Albany to 108 months of imprisonment for distributing child pornography images, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Clifford C. Holly, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division. Gaines, who had entered a guilty plea on May 16, 2012, was also ordered to have no unsupervised contact with minors and to register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry Program.

On December 19, 2011, Gaines, using a file sharing program, distributed approximately 100 still images of child pornography over the Internet. On March 2, 2012, pursuant to a federal search warrant, investigators recovered two computers, each of which contained many child pornography files, from his home.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.