A 26-year-old Penfield man has been sentenced to eight weekends in jail and 10 years of probation after pleading guilty to possessing a sexual performance by a child, closing out a case that began with a batch of cyber tips three years and nine months ago and escalated when he allegedly threatened the investigator looking into him.
Judge Michael Dollinger handed down the sentence for Ryon Shorter, according to 13WHAM, which reported that Shorter pleaded guilty to possessing a sexual performance by a child before receiving the split sentence. New York Courts describes that kind of arrangement, sometimes called shock probation, as a sentence in which part is served in jail and the rest on probation.
The case traces back to January 27, 2023, when New York State Police received 18 cyber tips from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, per the station's report. Those tips led investigators to determine that Shorter possessed files of child sexual abuse materials, according to the same account.
Threats Preceded the Arrest
More than two years later, on February 27, 2025, Shorter contacted a New York State Police investigator and made homicidal threats via phone and text message, the station reported. He was arrested that same day and charged with possessing a sexual performance by a child and aggravated harassment, with authorities issuing him an appearance ticket, per the outlet's reporting.
A separate report from Yahoo News on the 2025 arrest identified Shorter as 22 years old at the time of the investigation, while 13WHAM's October 2026 coverage described him as 26, citing the Monroe County District Attorney's Office. The reports gave conflicting ages.
A Surge in Cyber Tips Nationwide
Shorter's case fits into a broader pattern of rising reports to the national clearinghouse that flags suspected child sexual abuse material online. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says it received 21,351,493 CyberTipline reports in 2025, up from 20,512,803 in 2024 though still well below the 36,210,368 logged in 2023. The vast majority, 21,181,300 reports, came from electronic service providers rather than members of the public, who submitted 170,193.
Nationally, more than 1.9 million of the 2025 reports resolved to a specific U.S. state.
Another Rochester-Area Case
Another Rochester-area case involved Brett Bedford. RochesterFirst reported that Bedford, a 42-year-old Rochester man with a prior related conviction, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on January 27, 2026, and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution. Bedford had previously been sentenced to six months in prison and 10 years of probation for possessing an obscene sexual performance of a child younger than 16, per that outlet.
Shorter pleaded guilty to possessing a sexual performance by a child.
