Truck Driver Sentenced For Receipt and Possession of Child Pornography

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - Neal Braden, 61, was sentenced today to serve 97 months in prison for receiving and possessing child pornography, announced United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and James Hendricks, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Albany Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Senior United States District Judge Hon. Thomas J. McAvoy also imposed a 15-year term of supervised release, which will start after Braden is released from prison and ordered payment of $1,000 in restitution to each of four victims. As a result of his conviction, Braden will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

As part of his previous guilty plea, Braden admitted that he downloaded videos of child pornography over the internet and that he possessed those videos on his laptop computer in his truck when he was stopped by the New York State Police for failing to have the appropriate Highway Use Tax documentation displayed on his vehicle.   A search of Braden’s laptop computer revealed that he possessed 19 videos depicting child pornography.

In addition to his plea to receipt of child pornography, Braden also pled guilty to an indictment pending in the Western District of Missouri that charged him with Possessing Child Pornography in 2015 in Morgan County, Missouri.

Braden’s case was investigated by the New York State Police Troop D, the Morgan County, (Missouri) Sheriff's Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Albany and Kansas City Divisions.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Geoffrey J. L. Brown (NDNY) and Ashley Turner (WDMO).

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.