Peter Bratis, a 44-year-old sex offender from Chestertown, New York, has been sentenced to 137 months in prison for possessing child pornography with a prior conviction for abusive sexual conduct involving a minor.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Bratis pleaded guilty to using a Google Drive account to store images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct between February 24, 2011, and August 4, 2022. This was not Bratis’ first offense, as he had previously been convicted in Warren County Court of an offense involving abusive sexual conduct of a minor, specifically rape in the second degree.
Bratis has been in custody since his arrest on August 25, 2022. In addition to his prison sentence, Chief United States District Judge Brenda K. Sannes also sentenced Bratis to 25 years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment. Bratis will continue to be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emmet O’Hanlon and Joseph Hartunian prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood. Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and is designed to marshal federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
The sentencing of Peter Bratis serves as a reminder of the importance of initiatives like Project Safe Childhood in protecting our nation’s children from sexual exploitation and abuse. By working together, law enforcement agencies and the community can help to identify and prosecute individuals who engage in these heinous crimes, and ensure that they are held accountable for their actions.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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