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Massena man charged with child pornography earlier this year faces new federal counts

Posted 8/26/16

MASSENA -- A Massena man who was charged in February by Massena police on child pornography charges has been indicted in federal court on counts of distribution, receipt and possession of child …

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Massena man charged with child pornography earlier this year faces new federal counts

Posted

MASSENA -- A Massena man who was charged in February by Massena police on child pornography charges has been indicted in federal court on counts of distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography.

From at least June 2014 through February 2016, Joseph R. Banker, Jr. is alleged to have “knowingly distribute or attempt to distribute child pornography” in the form of “numerous graphic video and image files of one or more actual minors engaged in explicit conduct by use of the Internet,” according to the indictment filed in federal court in Plattsburgh Aug. 24.

The indictment also charges Banker with receiving and possessing those images and videos.

“The violation involved images of child pornography involving one or more prepubescent minors and minors who had not attained 12 years of age,” the indictment states.

Banker, who was 38 and lived at 18 Victory Rd. at the time of his arrest by Massena police in February, was charged by them with one count each of promoting and possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child, police said.

According to documents filed with Massena Village Court, Banker possessed numerous video files of a child under age 16 engaged in a sexual performance.

He had the files on his Tumblr account, which is a social media site, according to court documents.

The account was connected to Banker’s email address, the documents state.

Banker was interviewed by police and admitted the files were his, documents state.

Massena police were assisted by members of the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit and Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

Banker was placed under a protection order barring him from having unsupervised contact with anyone under age 18.