Kingston, NY—David Mulhauser, age 42, of North Arlington, NJ, was arraigned on Friday, June 28, 2024 before the Honorable Bryan Rounds on a 25-count indictment that included charges of Promoting A Sexual Performance By A Child Less Than 17 Years Of Age; Possessing Sexual Performance By Child; Unlawful Surveillance in the Second Degree; and Criminal Possession of a Firearm. At arraignment, the People requested Mulhauser be remanded to the Ulster County Jail with bail set at $250,000 cash, $500,000 bond, and $750,000 partially secured bond, which was granted. The defendant faces up to 10 to 20 years in State Prison if convicted on all counts.
The indictment stems from a course of conduct during which the defendant downloaded child sexual abuse material* between August 15 and October 26, 2022. The initial investigation was conducted by Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, which referred the matter to the Department of Homeland Security, whose investigators were able to determine that the content was linked to an IP address connected to a Gardiner address where defendant was living at the time. DHS then collaborated with the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office to execute a search warrant on February 23, 2023 at the Gardiner residence, where they recovered over 170 surreptitiously recorded homemade videos of an intimate nature and 443 items of child sexual abuse material. A full stay away order of protection for the victims identified through the investigation was requested and granted by Ulster County Court at the arraignment.
The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Assistant District Attorney Luba Reznikova, who also serves as Director of the Ulster County Intimate Partner Violence Intervention Task Force, is prosecuting the case. The defendant is represented by Kingston Law Firm O’Connor & Partners PLLC.
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*While the term child pornography is still widely used by the public, it’s more accurate to call it what it is: evidence of child sexual abuse. That is why the Office of the Ulster County District Attorney has stopped using the term child pornography and refers to it instead as CSAM.
