Rochester Man is Sentenced in Child Pornography Case

          ROCHESTER, N.Y.-- United States Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today Paul Hearty, 37, of Rochester, New York, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 15 years of supervised release by United States District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr., after pleading guilty to a one count felony information charging him with knowing possession of child pornography.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Lee, who handled the prosecution for the Government, stated that in December 2010, New York State Police's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received information that an AOL user was sending child pornography to an account used by a particular Internet Protocol address. The subscriber of the Internet Protocol address was identified as Hearty, residing at Alexander Street, in the City of Rochester. New York State Police executed a search warrant in April 2011 and images of child pornography were found on Hearty's Samsung smart phone.

In 2005, Hearty was convicted in Monroe County of the Possession of an Obscene Sexual Performance By A Child Less Than 16 Years Old. Following his conviction, Hearty was required to register as a sex offender.

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 the United States Homeland Security Investigations under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James Spero, the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit under the direction of Captain Frank Pace and the Monroe County District Attorney's Office under the direction of Sandra Doorley.