RAQUETTE LAKE — A man who worked as a caretaker with the state Department of Environmental Conservation at the Tioga Point campground in Raquette Lake has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and charged with distributing child sexual abuse material and traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor.

Kaziah M. White, 32, faces up to 50 years in prison for the alleged felonies.

White spent several days speaking online with a person he believed to be an adult with a 10-year-old son. That person was actually an undercover FBI officer in the bureau’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. White and the undercover agent eventually put together a plan for him to travel to Washington, D.C. to sexually abuse the fictional child.

Their conversations were lurid and disturbing, graphically describing plans for sexual abuse.

White is currently being held in custody without bond as he awaits trial.

White owns a property in Long Lake, where he lived seasonally. But he also worked with the DEC there — White’s LinkedIn page describes the job he held at the state Tioga Point campground as including cleaning, managing reservations, hosting educational workshops and assisting in the state’s Junior Naturalist program.

DEC Media Relations Director Cecilia Walsh said White worked at the Tioga Point campground from June to September 2022 and from April to October 2023.

“White is not currently employed by DEC nor have they worked for DEC this season,” Walsh said in a statement. “DEC does not have any record of complaints about this individual’s interactions with campground visitors.”

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The investigation

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White was charged and arrested following an investigation by the FBI.

The FBI’s undercover agent maintained social media profiles with hashtags that included child exploitation keywords. White was the one to initiate a conversation with the agent on the dating app Scruff, before moving it to the more secure messaging platforms Telegram and Discord.

Through subpoenas, the FBI was able to find a Gmail address with White’s name from Discord; his full name, alternate email address and phone number from Google; and an IP address and Maryland address from Comcast.

The FBI used commercial, law enforcement and open-source databases to identify White, including comparing explicit photos he sent them with public personal photographs.

As White and the undercover agent continued to plan a time to meet, White shared dozens of child sexual abuse materials — referred to as CSAM — with the agent, including videos showing abuse of toddlers.

White agreed to drive to Washington D.C. on March 28 to meet who he believed to be a father and son. The agent, posing as the father, met him in a coffee shop and they talked about their plans and about the Adirondacks.

They left the building and with a signal from the agent, members of the task force took White into custody without incident.

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White and the trial

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White was living in Clarkville, Maryland at the time of his arrest.

“Also got my own place in Northern NY,” he said in a message to the undercover FBI agent.

The Hamilton County tax map shows a property owned by White at 6 Greylock Road in Long Lake. According to the FBI, he resides there seasonally.

“While by all outward appearances, the defendant has lived a law-abiding life, the week-long chat conversation with the (undercover officer) in March of 2024 paints a very different picture,” federal attorneys wrote in court filings. “The defendant’s alleged conduct here is horrendous.”

In their conversations, White implies that he was groomed and sexually assaulted by his step-father as a child.

White has been held in federal custody based on the severity of his crime and the court’s belief his release would endanger the public.

“White poses a significant danger to children,” federal attorneys wrote to the court. “There are no conditions short of detention that will protect children — both online and in the real world — from the defendant.”

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NYSP investigation

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Prior to the FBI’s investigation, White was already under investigation by New York State Police in the Ray Brook-based Troop B for allegedly sharing CSAM and promoting a sexual act on a child, a felony, in January 2023. This investigation had been stalled for months before he was caught by the FBI this year.

Discord conversations tied to White shows he appears to have been in contact with an Illinois man named Anthony Leatherman and was providing him “guidance … in grooming a prepubecent male to engage in sexual abuse.” White appears to have been receiving child sexual abuse materials in return.

“He encouraged the sexual abuse of a child Leatherman indicated he had access to,” federal attorneys wrote.

As Indiana police investigated Leatherman, they contacted State Police in New York, saying they had traced the Discord profile to White through subpoenas to Discord and Google.

Leatherman was arrested and convicted of sexual abuse of a child, according to the federal attorneys.

“The (NYSP) investigation remains open and apparently stalled because White was not residing at his (Long Lake) residence in New York,” they wrote.

White’s next trial date before judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya for the federal charges has been set for July 3. He faces up to 50 years in prison.