A Greene County man, Stephen Wendell Lutes, 32, pleaded guilty to charges related to the sexual exploitation of children, including receipt and possession of child pornography. The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Erin Keegan, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Buffalo Field Office.
According to court documents, Lutes admitted to sexually abusing a girl identified as V1 from the age of approximately five until she was about eight years old. He also acknowledged creating recordings of some instances of this abuse. Additionally, Lutes admitted to making a video showing both V1 and another child, V2, who was around the same age, naked in a bathtub.
Lutes further admitted that during the period he abused V1, he knowingly viewed and downloaded child pornography involving other children unknown to him through social media applications and kept this material on his cellphone.
Acting United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III stated: “Lutes admitted to heinous sexual exploitation and child pornography crimes. My Office is committed to vigorously investigating and prosecuting child sex predators in coordination with our federal and state partners. The community is safer because Lutes will be behind bars for years to come.”
HIS Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan said: “With today’s guilty plea, the defendant admitted to his abhorrent exploitation of two children. While no amount of justice can undo the trauma of his crimes, I thank HSI Albany and our partners with the New York State Police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York for utilizing every tool at our disposal to confront threats against children and vulnerable communities.”
Sentencing is scheduled for December 22, 2025. For each count of sexual exploitation of a child, Lutes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years up to 30 years in prison; for receipt of child pornography he faces between 5 and 20 years; for possession he could receive up to 20 years. In addition to prison time, supervised release will range from at least five years up to life. Restitution payments are required for victims; fines may reach $250,000; Lutes must register as a sex offender upon release.
Sentences are determined by judges based on statutory requirements as well as federal sentencing guidelines.
The case was investigated by HSI and New York State Police. Assistant United States Attorneys Mikayla Espinosa and Michael D. Gadarian are prosecuting under Project Safe Childhood—a national initiative led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices alongside the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). The program brings together federal, state, and local resources aimed at identifying offenders who exploit children online while working toward rescuing victims (https://www.justice.gov/psc).
