A Gowanda man has been arrested on federal child pornography charges after he allegedly tried to meet up with someone he believed to be a teenage boy for sex at two different locations in Western New York. U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced Wednesday that 40-year-old James Mitchell is charged with receipt, distribution and possession of child pornography, which was the result of an investigation by the FBI and State Police.
On July 19th, State Police responded to Mitchell's residence on Broadway Road in Gowanda after receiving information that he allegedly possessed child pornography on his cell phone. According to prosecutors, the information came from an informant who is part of an online organization, not affiliated with law enforcement, performing volunteer activities to identify child abusers on the Internet. Law enforcement received information that Mitchell allegedly engaged in sexually explicit communications over Telegram with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old boy. During these conversations, Mitchell allegedly discussed plans to meet the 13-year-old to engage in sexual acts in Fredonia and Amherst.
Law enforcement seized Mitchell's cell phone. A subsequent search recovered numerous videos containing child pornography. In addition, investigators located a conversation on Telegram with an unidentified user, during which Mitchell allegedly stated: "Lol. I prefere 11+, so most the stuff I have is in the 11-17 range," indicating that he primarily had a sexual interest in children ages 11-17 and that he possessed child pornography depicting children ages 11-17. Mitchell allegedly exchanged approximately 143 videos and/or images depicting child pornography during the conversation. In another conversation, he allegedly advised another individual that he had "over 6,000" videos of child pornography on a flash drive, but "only like 15 of them are kids and animals."
Prosecutors add that Mitchell is a registered Level 1 sex offender in New York and Indiana after he was convicted in Cattaraugus County Court in June 2007 of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child less than 16 years ago. If convicted of this new charge, Mitchell faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.
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