Washington County Sex Offender Sentenced to 15 Years for Child Pornography Offenses

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Kevin Smurphat, age 35, of Whitehall, New York, was sentenced today to 15 years of imprisonment, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release, for possessing, receiving, distributing, and transporting child pornography.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement.

As part of his guilty plea, Smurphat, a previously convicted sex offender, admitted that while on state parole in early November 2020, he used a cellphone to upload, to a file-hosting service, depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and that he joined a group chat where he distributed child pornography to other individuals and received child pornography as well.

In addition to the imprisonment and supervised release terms, Smurphat was ordered to pay a total of $7,000 in restitution to his victims.

The FBI investigated the case as part of Project Safe Childhood. Assistant United States Attorney Dustin C. Segovia prosecuted the case.

Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS).  Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locates, 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.