Rensselaer County Sex Offender Convicted of Receiving Child Pornography

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Zachary Cota, age 31, of Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, pled guilty today to receiving child pornography and agreed to be sentenced to at least 262 months in prison.  United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement.

Cota admitted that he used SnapChat to solicit three children to send him nude photos.  After an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old provided the requested photos, Cota threatened to reveal what they had done, in an effort to obtain more child pornography from them.  At the time of these crimes, Cota was on probation for a course of sexual conduct against a child.  When his probation officer asked to see Cota’s phone, Cota locked himself in a bathroom and began deleting its contents.  A search of Cota’s phone revealed an additional 900 images of child pornography, including screenshots of a video chat between Cota and a naked child. 

When United States District Judge Anne M. Nardacci imposes sentence on September 6, 2024, Cota faces a term of imprisonment of at least 262 months and up to 327 months, a fine of up to $250,000, and a life term of supervised release. He has also agreed to forfeit the phone he used to commit the crimes. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors. Cota must also register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

The FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force—which includes members of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Rotterdam, Troy, and Colonie Police Departments and the New York State Police—investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Reiner is prosecuting as part of Project Safe Childhood.

Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s 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.