Cambridge, New York, man was sentenced on his guilty plea to a one count Indictment charging him with the possession of child pornography.

November 8, 2006

Glenn T. Suddaby, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, and John F. Pikus, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, announced that MARK V. LAPORTE, age 52, of Cambridge, New York, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn in Federal Court in Albany on his guilty plea to a one count Indictment charging him with the possession of child pornography. LAPORTE was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment and ordered to serve a ten year term of supervised release. He also was ordered to (1) have no unsupervised contact with minors; (2) participate in a sex offender program; and (3) register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry Program. The court also ordered that various computer equipment be forfeited to the United States.

LAPORTE plead guilty on June 7, 2006. During his plea, he admitted that between June of 2005, and January 20, 2006, he posted a number of images to a Yahoo! group. LAPORTE also admitted that two of the images he posted depict prepubescent males engaged in masturbation and the lascivious exhibition of their genital area. On January 20, 2006, a search warrant was executed at LAPORTE'S residence. A computer, computer disks and other items were seized pursuant to this warrant. Forensic examinations of these items were subsequently conducted and over 700 still images and 24 video images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were recovered. The images recovered depict individuals under the age of 18 engaged in, among other things, vaginal intercourse, anal sex, oral sex, masturbation and the lascivious exhibition of the genitals and pubic area. A number of images depict prepubescent minors engaged in such conduct.

The case was investigated by the New York State Police, Troop G, Greenwich Barracks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Predator Task Force, and the Washington County District Attorney's Office

CONTACT:

Thomas Spina Jr.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
tel.(518) 431-0247