A former Sharon
Springs resident has been
sentenced to prison for
possessing child pornography,
the U.S. Attorney
for the Northern District
of New York of the Department
of Justice said
in a media release.
John C. Hotaling, 49,
of Gallupville, was sentenced
Thursday to 6½
years in prison and ordered
to serve a lifetime
term of supervised release,
U.S. Attorney Andrew
T. Baxter said in the
release.
Hotaling also was prohibited
from having unsupervised
contact with
minors and was required
to participate in a sex
offender program and to
register with the state Sex
Offender Registry.
Hotaling, whose case
was heard before Judge
Norman A. Mordue in
Federal Court in Albany,
had pleaded guilty Feb.
5 to one count of indictment
charging him with
possession of child pornography.
In a statement with his
plea agreement, Hotaling
admitted using America
Online, including wire
transmissions between
New York and Virginia and
other factors in the case.
On Jan. 18, 2005, a state
search warrant was executed
at Hotaling’s residence
at 148 France St.
in Sharon Springs, and a
computer was taken, the
release said.
A forensic examination
of this computer revealed
that Hotaling possessed
computer images of six
known minor females that
he had digitally altered,
the release said. The
heads of the known minor
females had been “cut”
from their original nonpornographic
image and
“pasted” over the heads
of nude or partially nude
females engaged in sexually
explicit conduct.
About 300 images were
recovered.
The government wasn’t
able to determine whose
bodies were in the altered
images or that the bodies
were of minors, the release
said, but the bodies depicted
belong to actual individuals
and are not computer
generated. Hotaling
created the altered images
using a computer software
program, and he obtained
the bodies depicted in the
altered images utilizing
the Internet and AOL.
The case was investigated
by the state police
at Cobleskill, Schoharie
County Child Protective
Services and the Capital
Region Cyber Predator
Task Force of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
