Joseph Tyson Boy Scout and Big Brother Boy Molester gets life in prison

Evil and horrific is how a federal judge describes what Joe Tyson did. Then Judge Charles Siragusa handed down a sentence to guarantee that Tyson will die in prison.

He was a former Boy Scoutmaster, mentor and Big Brother. Joseph Tyson led Boy Scout Troop 262.

This is how bad this case was. In Federal Court, the judge has to assign points for each charge. There added up to figure out the sentence. Joe Tyson scored a 48. The highest the scale ever goes to is 46.

A former Canandaigua man will spend the rest of his days behind bars, having been sentenced in federal court to a 65 year prison term for having and creating child pornography and using the Internet to lure minors for sex.

Joseph Tyson, 58, formerly of 515 Camelot Apartments in the city, was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge Charles Siragusa Friday. He was convicted after a seven-day trial in late 2007 of six criminal charges that also included traveling across state lines with the intention of having sex with a child and taking a child across state lines in hopes of having sex.

Between Sept. 16 and 27, 2005, Tyson used his computer at his apartment in Canandaigua to chat with an individual he believed to be a 14-year-old boy located in Keene, N.H., prosecutors said.

The minor was actually an undercover police officer from Keene. During the chats, prosecutors said, Tyson enticed the minor to engage in illicit sexual activity. “Further, the defendant had mailed the minor a Webcam and condoms,” said Margaret McFarland, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

On Sept. 28, 2005, Tyson drove from Canandaigua to Keene and was arrested. Police said they found a mattress, sex toys, condoms, lubricant and cameras in his vehicle.

On the day of his arrest, his apartment in Canandaigua was searched by city police. His computer was found to contain thousands of images of child pornography, prosecutors said.

Among the media on his computer files were sexually explicit images of a 9-year-old boy from Rochester who Tyson had met through the Compeer big-brother program, McFarland said.

“While acting as the boy’s big brother for approximately 13 months, the defendant repeatedly raped and molested the boy,” she said.

In March 2006, an Ontario County Court judge sentenced Tyson, who had also lived in Webster, to spend 11 1/2 years in state prison for child pornography charges that were levied a month after his arrest in Keene. The charges were related to the computer files found in Canandaigua, authorities said.

He pleaded guilty in January 2006 to first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child.

The investigation was handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with city police.

Just before the sentence was handed down, Tyson told the judge, “I take responsibility for everything I did. I am sorry for what happened. I am a converted Christian. If I had known then what I know now, this wouldn't have happened."