The United States Attorney’s Office reports a former Central New York pastor will spend three years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York, 59-year-old James Swanson, of Rome, admitted that between March 25, 2022, and March 28, 2022, he uploaded several videos of child pornography to a cloud storage account under his control. Swanson also admitted that he had engaged in this type of conduct for years but would periodically purge his collection of child pornography before eventually accessing, viewing, and downloading more. According to documents filed in United States District Court, Swanson worked as a pastor for decades and most recently served as the pastor of the Rome Wesleyan Church.
In addition to sentencing Swanson to serve time in federal prison, Chief United States District Judge, Brenda K. Sannes, also imposed a 15-year term of supervised release which Swanson will begin serving after he is released from prison at which time Swanson will also be required to register as a sex offender.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), the New York State Police (NYSP), and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian S. LaRochelle as part of Project Safe Childhood.
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