Burlington, Vermont – The United States Attorney’s Office stated that on November 17, 2023, Kenneth Bishop, 38, of Alburgh, Vermont was sentenced to a 5-year term of imprisonment, following his guilty plea to possessing child pornography, also referred to as child sexual abuse material. United States District Judge Christina Reiss also ordered Bishop to serve a 15-year term of supervised release following his release from prison.
According to court records, on September 29, 2022, while Bishop was on furlough status with the Vermont Department of Corrections, Vermont Probation and Parole Officers learned of complaints by an employee of a local spa regarding Bishop’s lewd behavior during a spa treatment. Vermont Probation and Parole confiscated Bishop’s phone, discovered evidence consistent with the complaint of the spa employee, and reincarcerated Bishop for violating the conditions of his furlough. A subsequent search of Bishop’s phone pursuant to a search warrant revealed an encrypted application on the phone. A forensic examination of the phone revealed images and videos depicting child sexual abuse which Bishop had stored within the encrypted application.
Bishop has prior State of Vermont convictions for lewd and lascivious conduct related to him intentionally exposing his penis to young children. The first instance occurred in February 2017 when Bishop victimized a 9-year-old girl in the toy aisle of a store in Morristown, and the second instance occurred in May 2017 when Bishop victimized a 10-year-old girl in the doll aisle of a toy store in Williston. Bishop also has a prior conviction in 2013 for engaging in prohibited acts stemming from a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl when he was 28 years old.
U.S. Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest commended the investigatory efforts of detectives of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office’s Criminal Division, agents of Homeland Security Investigations, and members of the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The prosecutor was Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Ophardt. Bishop was represented by Jordana Levine, Esq.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and Child Exploitation Obscenity Section, Criminal Division (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
