Assistant U.S. Attorney, Kyle Rossi, who is handling the
case, stated that in May 2018, the Los Angeles office of the FBI executed a
federal search warrant at a residence in Solvang, California. Special agents
seized a number of electronic items containing child pornography. A resident at
that address admitted to using social networking sites such as Kik and Live.me
to trade child pornography with others via the Internet. Based on that
information, investigators identified several individuals, including the
defendant, who were actively involved in the child pornography trade.
The information was sent to the Corning Office of the FBI,
who, with the assistance of the Penn Yan Police Department, identified Maciejewski
as a substitute teacher for the Penn Yan Central School District. Special
agents acted quickly to obtain search warrants and locate Maciejewski, who was
ultimately interviewed at the school district’s offices. During the interview,
the defendant confessed that he in fact traded child pornography using social
networking sites, including a cloud storage service, “Mega,” which is located
in New Zealand. With the help of the New
Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, investigators obtained the contents of
Maciejewski’s Mega account, which contained hundreds of images and videos of
child pornography. The defendant’s electronic devices were also forensically
examined. In total, Maciejewski possessed more than 600 images and videos of
child pornography, some of which depicted the sexual abuse of infants and
toddlers.
The plea is the result of an investigation by the Corning
Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Buffalo Division, under the
direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Gary Loeffert; the Penn Yan Police
Department, under the direction of Chief Thomas Dunham; and the New Zealand
Department of Internal Affairs. Sentencing is scheduled for February 21, 2020,
at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Geraci.
