{"id":291702,"date":"2026-07-09T19:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291702\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T19:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:48:22","slug":"new-york-priest-facing-20-years-in-prison-on-child-pornography-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291702\/","title":{"rendered":"New York priest facing 20 years in prison on child pornography charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A priest who has been on administrative leave for more than half a decade, in part over allegations of inappropriate conduct with children, has been charged by federal authorities with possession of child pornography, a U.S. attorney announced on July 8. <\/p>\n

The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Western District of New York said in a press release<\/a> that Father Jeffrey Nowak of Lackawanna, New York, was arrested and charged with both the receipt and possession of child pornography. <\/p>\n

The charges \u201ccarry a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years,\u201d the attorney\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n

Nowak has been the subject of investigations by authorities as far back as 2019,<\/a> when he was placed on administrative leave that year after a seminarian reported that the priest had sexually harassed him. <\/p>\n

The U.S. attorney\u2019s office said Nowak was also the subject of \u201callegations of inappropriate contact with children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The priest was also linked to an email address reportedly connected with child sexual abuse material, according to the prosecutor\u2019s office. A two-year FBI investigation into the matter was ultimately closed. <\/p>\n

The FBI reopened its investigation into Nowak in March of this year, the prosecutor said. On July 8 a search warrant was executed at Nowak\u2019s residence during which investigators found child pornography on his electronic devices. <\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said in the release that the priest \u201chid behind a keyboard and took part in the tragic exploitation of one of society\u2019s most vulnerable populations, our children.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNowak has now been exposed and can no longer hide and will be held accountable for his disgraceful behavior,\u201d the prosecutor said. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Diocese of Buffalo, meanwhile, said in a statement on July 9 that Nowak \u201cwas placed on permanent leave in 2019 and has not been permitted to function as a priest since then.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not aware of any attempt by law enforcement officials to contact the diocese regarding these allegations,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

The diocese \u201chas just learned of the allegations against him and will cooperate fully with any inquiry by law enforcement officials,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A priest who has been on administrative leave for more than half a decade, in part over allegations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3734,1239,26474,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-291702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-catholic-news","tag-child-pornography","tag-diocese-of-buffalo","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}