NY Pastor Gets Three Years On Child Porn Charges

From the Justice Department:

James H. Swanson, age 59, of Rome, New York, was sentenced today to three years in federal prison for possession of child pornography, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Matthew Scarpino, Special Agent in Charge of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Buffalo, New York Field Office.

As part of his earlier guilty plea, Swanson 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.

Read the full press release. No mugshots in federal cases.

A Rome man — formerly a pastor in the Wesleyan Church in Rome — has been sentenced after pleading guilty to federal child exploitation charges, according to the US Federal Court in Syracuse. Find out his sentence at the link below:https://t.co/7SbWhfvwie

— EYEWITNESS NEWS (@cnyhomepage) September 20, 2024