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Press Release

Saratoga County Sex Offender Sentenced to 180 Months for Child Pornography Convictions

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Zachary L. Duchesne, age 27, of Stillwater, New York, was sentenced today to 180 months in prison for transporting and possessing child pornography.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Matthew Scarpino, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

In previously pleading guilty, Duchesne admitted to using a Dropbox account to store, possess and view images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, between December 26, 2017 and June 23, 2019.  He admitted to periodically transferring child pornography videos into his Dropbox account, and to using the stored child pornography as a form of “currency” to trade with other people.

Duchesne has been in custody since his arrest on July 15, 2020, and has a prior state conviction relating to the possession of child pornography. 

United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also imposed a 15-term of post-imprisonment supervised release, and ordered Duchesne to pay $36,000 in restitution to victims whose abuse was depicted in the images that he possessed.  Duchesne will also have to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

This case was investigated by HSI, with assistance from the Stillwater Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett 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), 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.

Updated July 22, 2022

Topic
Project Safe Childhood