Child pornographer in All Saints case gets 235 years for sexually exploiting children

By John O'brien
Syracuse.com
September 13, 2016

http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/09/child_pornographer_all_saints_prison.html

Jason Kopp in a 2007 photo.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Liverpool man was sentenced to 235 years in prison today for sexually exploiting two children for the purpose of making child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby imposed the sentence on Jason Kopp, who had pleaded guilty.

Suddaby said the essential life sentence was justified because Kopp was a "repeat sex offender who preyed upon the most vulnerable of society."

The judge ordered Kopp to pay $1,000 in restitution to one of the children who appeared in some of his hundreds of images of child pornography. The child filed a request for restitution. Kopp must make monthly payments toward that amount, the judge said.

In addition to the two victims Kopp admitted exploiting, a federal prosecutor says he sexually abused or exploited six more children. One of them was a 6-day-old baby girl, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher said in court papers.

Kopp wore an orange jail uniform to court, with handcuffs and leg irons. He cried at the defense table and was too overcome with emotion to read his prepared statement in court. His lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Randi Bianco read it for him.

Kopp apologized to his victims.

"I am sorry I hurt you and caused you pain and suffering," his statement said. "None of this was your fault. I hope you can forgive me."

Kopp said he took full responsibility for his crimes. He said he cries every night about what he did.

"That wasn't me," his written statement said. "I'm not that person."

Fletcher reminded Suddaby of the texts Kopp sent expressing his joy after sexually abusing the newborn baby. A long prison sentence sends a message to other serial child molesters, she said.

"It emphasizes to those like-minded individuals who similarly skulk around believing that their abuse of the most vulnerable victims is a silent crime for which there are no repercussions," Fletcher said in court.

After Kopp was arrested, he told a state police investigator that it was his own fault, Fletcher said.

Kopp told the trooper, "I should have been a better person," Fletcher said.

"He should have been," the prosecutor said. "But he wasn't, and he's not."

After the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said he couldn't think of another defendant who displayed Kopp's level of depravity. He cited Kopp's texts in which he said his dreams had come true in molesting the 6-day-old baby.

"It takes your breath away," Hartunian said of the texts. "Not only did he dream these sick dreams but he acted on them. He horribly injured young children and scarred people for the rest of their lives."

Kopp pleaded guilty in May to taking sexually explicit photos of two children with help from an aide at All Saints Elementary School in Syracuse. Neither of those victims was a student at the school.

The aide, Emily Oberst, is accused of exploiting those two victims, plus a third who was a student at the school, photographed naked in a bathroom, sources have told Syracuse.com.

Oberst is scheduled to go to trial in November.

Fletcher asked Suddaby to sentence Kopp to 550 years in prison. She cited a pre-sentence report from probation officers that listed the six new victims. None of those victims was a student at All Saints.

Fletcher cited text messages the FBI found on Kopp's phone to Oberst about the two victims he admitted sexually exploiting.

Kopp, in his texts, referred to the baby girl as his "sex toy" and in other vulgar terms, Fletcher wrote.

Two of the new victims were ages 1 and 2 when Kopp got access to them in 2006 by offering to babysit them overnight for their mother, who was a friend of his, court papers said. He sexually abused them, took sexually explicit pictures of them and kept the photos on his computer for the past 10 years, Fletcher wrote.

Bianco said in her sentencing memorandum that he should get the mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison, partly because of his troubled upbringing.