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Martinsburg Man Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to
Distributing and Possessing Child Pornography
Published: August 19, 2021
at 03:30 p.m.
By: Press Release from U.S. Attorney’s Office
Martinsburg Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing and
Possessing Child Pornography
SYRACUSE, NEW
YORK – Randell Adsit, 50, of Martinsburg, New
York pled guilty today to distributing and possessing child pornography.
The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T.
Bacon and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in
Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI).
As part of his
guilty plea before United States District Court Judge David N. Hurd, Adsit, who has a prior New York State conviction for
possessing a sexual performance by a child, admitted that he distributed
child pornography using a social media application from approximately
February 2020 through September 2020. Adsit also
admitted that, on November 11, 2020, he possessed approximately 40 files
depicting child pornography on his cell phone.
When Adsit is sentenced on December 22, 2021, he faces at least
15 years and up to 40 years in prison for distributing child pornography
and at least 10 years and up to 20 years in prison for possessing child
pornography. In addition, Adsit will be required
to serve a term of supervised release of between five years and life after
his term of incarceration and will be required to register as a sex
offender. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the statute
the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines,
and other factors.
This case was
investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force,
comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators
of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and
Computer Crimes Unit (CCU) and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Michael D. Gadarian.
This case is
being prosecuted 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.
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