
Ex-Stillwater mayor faces prison sentence for child pornography
Updated 7:49 am, Tuesday, June 19, 2018
(State Police photo)
(State Police photo)
BALLSTON SPA — Former Stillwater mayor Rick W. Nelson faces sentencing on child pornography charges Tuesday.
In April, Nelson pleaded guilty to felony counts of child pornography possession in return for a proposed sentence of 5 to 15 years in state prison.
He admitted to knowingly having and accessing images of children less than 16 years of age engaged in sexual conduct in August 2017, Heggen said.
Nelson, 62, was arrested last year after an investigation by a State Police Computer Crime Unit found a Stillwater IP address was being used to download child pornography, police said. The investigation led to a search of Nelson's home and his arrest, troopers said.
Nelson's arrest marked at least the fifth time in the last 42 years that the former school bus driver has been accused of victimizing children or teenagers.
Nelson, a Democrat, faced three separate sex crime cases between 1975 and 1986 – with one of the latter cases including allegations of rape and sodomy. And in 1982, the future mayor was accused of inappropriate behavior toward a 5-year-old on the school bus.
Nelson was elected mayor of the village in early 2015, defeating a 23-year incumbent for the right to lead the village of about 1,700 inhabitants on the Hudson River.