SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Lance Potter, 44, pleaded guilty Tuesday to five felonies in relation to uploading and downloading child pornography on the internet and failing to return to court. Police had to go to San Diego in January to bring him back to the Capital Region to face the charges brought against him.

Potter will receive seven years in prison on each of the two counts of a Sexual Performance by a Child to be followed by 10 years of parole. Those sentences will run concurrently to the one and one-third to four years he received for each of the two counts of Possession of a Sexual Performance by a Child.

He will also receive one to three years for bail jumping which will run consecutively to the other sentences. Potter will spend the next eight to 11 years in prison followed by 10 years of parole. He will also have to register as a sex offender when released.

Potter’s guilty plea resolved the 101 count indictment handed up by a Schenectady County Grand Jury.

The investigation into Potter began in April 2019 when members of the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit downloaded thousands of child porn images uploaded by Potter. In September 2019, Potter again uploaded thousands of images.

He was arrested in October 2019 and was ordered to return to court in November. In December members of the United States Marshalls located Potter living off the grid in San Diego, according to the Schenectady County District Attorney. In January State Police traveled to California and brought Potter back to the Capital Region.

“This is one of the more egregious cases of child pornography that we have encountered and although we do not have unlimited funds with which to pursue extraditions as expensive as one from the other side of the country, I believe it was important to bring him back to reinforce our commitment to the protection of children from sexual exploitation and to discourage other defendants from fleeing to escape justice,” said District Attorney Robert Carney.