SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Chester Hammond, age 45, of Manlius, New York, was sentenced today to serve 15 years in federal prison for distributing and possessing 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 (NYSP) Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen.
As part of his previous guilty plea, Hammond admitted that while using a social media messaging application he sent an image depicting two children engaging in sexually explicit conduct to another individual over the internet. A subsequent search of Hammond’s cellular telephone revealed that he was in possession of over 400 images of child pornography. Hammond is a registered sex offender who was convicted in Oswego County in 1996 of Attempted Sexual Abuse in the First Degree.
Senior United States District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy also imposed a 25-year term of supervised release, which will start after Hammond is released from prison, and ordered Hammond to pay a $200 special assessment and restitution in the amount of $12,000. Hammond will also be required to continue to register as a sex offender.
Hammond’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 Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey J. L. Brown as a part of Project Safe Childhood.
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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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