BUFFALO — U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that David Rubel, 41, of Tonawanda, NY, who was convicted of receipt of child pornography, was sentenced to serve 84 months in prison and 15 years supervised release by U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Raymond J. Fadel, who handled the case, stated that in August 2020, a parent filed a report with the Town of Tonawanda Police Department, alleging that Rubel had been texting his daughter, who recently turned 16 years-old (Victim), and that some of the texts he observed were sexual in nature. The parent observed inappropriate images on his daughter’s cell phone within a text thread between the Victim and Rubel. With the consent of the Victim’s father, an investigator searched the cell phone and observed the text messages, some of which included sexual images. Investigators also searched Rubel’s cell phone and recovered sexual images, including two videos, that were also found on the Victim’s cell phone, within the string of text messages between Ruble and the Victim.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Town of Tonawanda Police Department, under the direction of Chief James Stauffiger and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia.