Ithaca Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Receiving and Possessing Child Pornography

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Leroy Reed, age 54, of Ithaca, New York, was sentenced today to serve 15 years in federal prison for receiving 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) Acting Superintendent Steven A. Nigrelli.

As part of his guilty plea, Reed, admitted that from February 2020 to March 2021 he used a computer to download child pornography over the internet using peer-to-peer file sharing software. A subsequent search of Reed’s apartment revealed that he was in possession of 55 images and 94 video files depicting child pornography.  Reed is a registered sex offender who was convicted in 2002 of Rape in the First Degree involving a victim who was 15 years old.

United States District Judge David N. Hurd also imposed a 20-year term of supervised release, which will start after Reed is released from prison, and ordered him to pay a $200 special assessment and restitution in the amount of $6,000.00.  Reed will also be required to continue to register as a sex offender.

Reed’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 Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office.  The case was 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.