Liverpool Man Sentenced to 20 Years on Second Child Pornography Conviction

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – John Dauenhauer, 58, of Liverpool, New York, was sentenced today to serve 20 years in prison for transporting and possessing child pornography, announced United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and Kevin M. Kelly, Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

As part of his guilty plea in federal court, Dauenhauer admitted that in November of 2017 he used a computer connected to the internet to upload to an IMGBox account nine graphic image files depicting one or more minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. 

Dauenhauer further admitted that in addition to the child pornography files he uploaded to the internet in November of 2017, that in June of 2018 he knowingly possessed on a Sandisk thumb drive approximately 80 videos that depict child pornography. 

Senior United States District Judge Hon. Thomas J. McAvoy also imposed a lifetime term of supervised release, which will start after Dauenhauer is released from prison, ordered the defendant to pay $21,000 in restitution to victims, as well as a $200 special assessment. As a result of his conviction, Dauenhauer will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Dauenhauer was previously convicted of a child pornography charge in Onondaga County (New York) Court on March 26, 2010, when he pled guilty to Possessing A Sexual Performance By A Child Less Than 16 Years of Age, a Class E Felony, and was sentenced to a 10-year term of probation.

Dauenhauer’s current federal case was investigated by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the New York State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey J. L. Brown.

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). 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.