Press Release
☷Vestal Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography
Federal Bureau of Investigation ( By Press Release office)
May 03,2022
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Vestal Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography SYRACUSE , NEW YORK – Nicholas Donafrio , age 42 , of Vestal , New York , pled guilty today before Senior United States District Judge Thomas J . McAvoy to one count of possession of child pornography , announced United States Attorney Carla B . Freedman , Janeen DiGuiseppi , Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) and New York State Police Superintendent Kevin P . Bruen . Donafrio’s sentencing is scheduled for September 6 , 2022 . He faces up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250 , 000 on the charge . The Court must also impose a term of supervised release of between 5 years and life , and Donofrio will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison . A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the statute the defendant is charged with violating , the U . S . Sentencing Guidelines , and other factors . As part of his guilty plea , Donafrio admitted that in September of 2016 an FBI undercover agent using peer - to - peer file sharing software downloaded child pornography from Donafrio’s laptop computer and that in March of 2017 he possessed over 12 , 000 images and 57 video files depicting child pornography on a thumb drive . Donofrio also admitted that he possessed another 1 , 500 images and 150 videos on eight other pieces of electronic media , and that the child pornography he collected included prepubescent children and toddlers . Donafrio’s case was investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid - State Child Exploitation Task Force , comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police , Bureau of Criminal Investigation ( BCI ) , with assistance from the Vestal Police Department . The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U . S . Attorney Geoffrey J . L . Brown as a part of Project Safe Childhood . Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice , Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section ( CEOS ) , and is designed to marshal 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 .
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