Undocumented Man Arrested in Oneonta for Alleged Child Porn Possession, Distribution

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
ONEONTA

A 20-year-old man is accused of possessing and posting online child sexual abuse material.

According to the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office, Diego Jose Hernandez Martinez was arrested on March 26 on seven counts of Possessing an Obscene Sexual Performance by a Child and 32 counts of Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child. The Sheriff’s Office said Martinez is an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador.

The Sheriff’s Office press release said that on February 4 their investigators were “assigned seven individual Cyber Tips that were received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The Electronic Service Providers of Google and X.AI reported to NCMEC that suspected Child Sexual Abuse Material had been uploaded to their servers.”
“With the assistance of the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, investigators executed multiple search warrants which identified the defendant as the individual responsible for uploading the Child Sexual Abuse Material to his internet accounts,” the Sheriff’s Office said. They added that on March 26 Martinez “was located in the Town of Oneonta and taken in to custody without incident,” and awaits arraignment at Otsego County Correctional Facility.

The investigation also revealed that Martinez was “an undocumented immigrant originally from El Salvador,” the release said.

Many commenters on the Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook post had strong reactions. Several commenters shared images of or referenced woodchippers as a suggestion for what should happen to Martinez, or otherwise advocated for Martinez to be killed. Others called for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to get involved.

“Just hand him over to federal authorities. There is no way we should continue to tolerate this type of horrible behavior in our community,” Town of Hartwick Councilmember Bryan LoRusso commented.

Some commenters stressed there had not been any conviction and called for due process for Martinez.

It is so far unclear whether Martinez could be impacted by the terms of the Sheriff’s Office’s 287(g) Warrant Service Officer agreement with ICE, which some members of the public applauded in the comments.

The Warrant Service Officer agreement is distinct from a different kind of 287(g), the Jail Enforcement Model, which permits a jail to transfer any person in their custody who is present in the country illegally to ICE custody. The Warrant Service Officer agreement signed by Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. (R) enables the Sheriff’s Office to transfer individuals with immigration warrants at the conclusion of their criminal custody to ICE custody.

As of January 20, Devlin said no one in his custody had yet been subject to the terms of his office’s Warrant Service Officer agreement.

An ICE spokesperson, who did not give their name, told AllOtsego they would require more details to confirm whether Martinez had an active immigration warrant. The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to repeated requests for further details on the Martinez case and the agreement.

The text of the 287(g) tightly limits the Sheriff’s Office ability to share information about its activities pursued under the agreement. Among other requirements, any release of information “obtained or developed as a result of this [memorandum of agreement]” is “under the control of ICE.” It requires the Sheriff’s Office to contact the ICE Office of Public Affairs, “which will consult the ICE Privacy Office for approval, prior to any release to the media.”