Floyd Wood, a 57-year-old resident of DeRuyter, New York, has pled guilty in United States District Court to failing to register an email account as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. He also admitted to violating conditions of his federal supervised release. The announcement was made by United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and United States Marshal David McNulty.
Wood, who is a federally convicted sex offender, confessed to creating and maintaining an unreported email account. This act violated legal requirements mandating its registration with the Sex Offender Registry. Additionally, he acknowledged that he did not report this email account to the United States Probation Office and falsified reports regarding it. Furthermore, Wood admitted to possessing an unreported internet-capable phone on which the undisclosed email was found.
The offense of failing to register carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine up to $250,000, and a supervised release term ranging from at least 5 years up to life. For violating supervised release terms, Wood could face an additional 5 years in prison. Sentencing will be determined by a judge based on specific statutes violated by the defendant along with U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other considerations.
U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III stated: “Sex offenders who surreptitiously use the internet in violation of law, and in violation of court-imposed conditions of supervision designed to mitigate their threat to society, will be prosecuted by my office to the fullest extent of the law.”
The case is being investigated by the United States Marshals Service with assistance from the United States Probation Office. Assistant United States Attorney Lisa M. Fletcher is prosecuting this case as part of her role as Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the Northern District of New York.
Project Safe Childhood is an initiative aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse nationwide. It leverages resources from federal, state, and local levels for better apprehension and prosecution of individuals exploiting children via the Internet while identifying and rescuing victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
