RAQUETTE LAKE — A former caretaker at the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Tioga Point campground in Raquette Lake was sentenced to seven years in prison last week for distribution of child sexual abuse material.

Kaziah M. White, 33, pleaded guilty in December to the distribution of child pornography.

Last March, 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.

As White and the undercover agent planned, White shared dozens of child sexual abuse materials — referred to as CSAM — with the agent, including videos showing abuse of toddlers. Although the crime is titled as “child pornography,” it is now referred to as child sexual abuse material, to emphasize the unconsensual nature of the material.

White owns a property in Long Lake, where he had lived seasonally since 2020.

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 in May 2024. “DEC does not have any record of complaints about this individual’s interactions with campground visitors.”

The Hamilton County tax map shows a property owned by White at 6 Greylock Road in Long Lake.

White was living in Clarkville, Maryland at the time of his arrest. He lived there in the off-season.

The conversations between White and the FBI agent were lurid and disturbing, graphically describing plans for sexual abuse, with White indicating that “5-14” were his favorite ages.

White had also been charged with traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor, but this charge was dropped.

The U.S. prosecuting attorney and White’s defense attorney each submitted memos to the court recommending different prison sentence lengths.

The U.S. pushed for the 12.5-year sentence. White’s defense attorney pushed for five years. The proposed 12.5-year prison sentence would have been at the bottom of the sentencing guideline’s range in this case. The proposed five-year sentence would have been the mandatory minimum required sentence. The maximum sentence was set at 20 years. Judge Dabney Friedrich’s reasoning for the seven-year sentence is restricted to the public.

White’s 87-month sentence at FCI Petersburg will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He will need to register as a sex offender. He must not have contact with any child he knows is under the age of 18 outside of incidental contact during ordinary daily activities in public spaces. If he does, he will need to report it to his probation officer within 24 hours. The probation office will install computer monitoring software on his computer.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said this case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. The U.S. Department of Justice launched PSC in May 2006, coordinating federal, state and local law enforcement to address the epidemic.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Bond. Federal Public Defender Diane Shrewsbury provided the defense for White.

To read more about the details of the investigation and arrest, go to tinyurl.com/3xb2rph9.

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Prosecution

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U.S. Attorney Edward Martin wrote the prosecuting memo.

In his memo, Martin describes how CSAM “encourages and normalizes” the abuse of children, and continues to re-victimize the victims every time images are viewed.

“Distributors of child pornography, like the defendant, create a market and demand for materials depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of real children,” Martin wrote.

He said deterrence through enforcement of the law is an important part of dismantling that market.

A forensic psychologist’s evaluation determined White presents an “average” risk of recidivism.

“Research on the offenders rated on both the Static-99R and Stable-2007 estimates that, within five years of release to the community, approximately 7.5% of Level III offenders would be expected to sexually reoffend,” Martin wrote.

He also said though the charge of “traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor” was dropped, it should still be taken into context in sentencing.

“The distribution of child pornography was a means to an end for him,” Martin wrote. “He distributed child pornography to build and solidify the developing relationship with the (agent), someone who he thought had a shared sexual interest in children and would allow him the opportunity for sex with a child.”

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Defense

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Federal Public Defender A.J. Kramer wrote the defense memo.

Kramer said White’s time in jail has provided him perspective, and that he has been “adamant” about accepting responsibility and seeking treatment.

“Mr. White feels truly regretful of and embarrassed by his conduct in this case,” Kramer wrote. “From his first meeting with defense counsel, Mr. White has expressed sincere regret and a consistently strong desire to seek the treatment and help he may need.”

While White was in jail, he was attending therapy, but Kramer said the therapist was removed in January and he hasn’t been able to attend another since then.

“White is committed to receiving any treatment that is offered both at the Bureau of Prisons and in the community after his release to help him work through both his own abuse and his conduct in this case and the impulses that landed him before the Court,” Kramer wrote.

He challenged the sentencing guidelines as being flawed, saying they do not account for the defendant’s history and characteristics, and tend to magnify punishment. Kramer points out that these guidelines are just advisory and the judge does not need to follow them, adding that courts often sentence below these guideline ranges and requesting the judge do that.

“The overall recidivism rate for non-production (CSAM) defendants is low (27.6%) and the rate of sexual recidivism is very low (4.3%),” Kramer wrote.

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Letter from father

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White’s father wrote a letter included in the defense’s memo in which he asks that his son serve his time at an institution with the mental services to help him become a productive and safe member of society.

“I honestly don’t care HOW LONG his sentence is,” his father wrote. “I just want him to get the help he so desperately needs.

“My opinion of Kaz at this point in time is complicated,” his father added. “I loved who my son was before all of this happened. … However, I am now mourning the relationship that I had with Kaz just as I would mourn his actual death. That relationship no longer exists.”

As a teacher, his father said he was unable to work for several weeks after his son’s arrest, as he grappled with the charges. He said he had made it his life’s work to help and protect children.

“I love my son and always will. I just want him to get better. Right now, he is not better,” his father wrote. “As of this writing, he is still a danger to society and deserves to be locked up to keep others safe (especially the most vulnerable of our society, children). I am hoping that, with the proper counseling, he can once again join society without worrying that he will harm children.”

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Other 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 case involved an Illinois man named Anthony Leatherman who White was allegedly providing “guidance … in grooming a prepubecent male to engage in sexual abuse.” White appears to have been receiving child sexual abuse materials in return. Leatherman was arrested, but the NYSP investigation into White had been stalled for months before he was caught by the FBI.

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

This investigation is now closed because police were not able to link White’s username with his phone number.