Rick W. Nelson, the former mayor of Stillwater, NY, pled guilty to five felony counts of possessing child pornography in a Saratoga County Court on April 12. After receiving a plea deal, he is currently facing between 5 and 15 years in state prison and will be required to register as a sex offender. Nelson acted as mayor of Stillwater from April 2015 until September 2017, when he was arrested.

Investigators with the Computer Crimes Unit of the New York State Police began the investigation after discovering an IP address located in Stillwater that had been used to download photographs that were illicit in nature.

Tracy Minor, a resident of Stillwater, is quoted in WRBG Albany, stating “If he’s watching little kids on porn sites, he’s obviously watching our children in the village and town, which scares me even more.” She also claims to have seen him observing local playgrounds on occasion, further creating worries for local residents.

This is not the first time that Nelson has faced court charges, as there are four prior instances where he has been accused of victimizing children, two of which involved students that rode the school buses he was responsible for driving.

In 1975, he was accused of sexual misconduct, involving a 14-year-old girl. Seven years later, in 1982, he was the subject of a complaint about inappropriate behavior directed towards a 5-year-old girl on the school bus. The complaint was addressed by switching the child to a different bus, and school administration placed a disciplinary note concerning the incident in his file, according to an article in The Times Union.

He was later accused of raping and sodomizing an 18-year-old girl with developmental disabilities, this incident also occurring on his school bus, and faced accusations regarding first-degree sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a 15-year-old girl, both of which he was accused of in 1986. Reportedly, he was never convicted of any of the past crimes he was accused of. After being acquitted from the charges in the 1986 cases, he resigned from his position as a bus driver.

His son Patrick Nelson is a democratic hopeful who is looking to win the nomination to run against U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik, the Republican currently representing New York’s 21 Congressional District. SLU is located in this district, and with many students being registered to vote in the area, some are wondering what the future of the campaign looks like. “It’s a little scary knowing that Nelson’s father is connected with such awful crimes,” states Roni Zabala ’19, a resident of Saratoga Springs, NY and a registered voter in NY-21. “However, if he’s able to condemn his father, and if he’s had no connection with any of these crimes, then I’m hesitant to fully write him off as a candidate for someone else’s actions.”

In the “Meet Patrick” portion of the site, he mentions his experience working with other campaigns, such as Aaron Woolf’s 2014 congressional campaign, Bernie Sanders’ 2015 – 2016 presidential campaign, and Col. Mike Derrick’s 2016 campaign for the House of Representatives in the NY-21 District. Nelson also ran his father’s campaign for mayor back in 2015, but has removed any mention of his father from his website, even going as far as to not include him in the family lineage that he lists, which dates back to his grandparents.

Nelson is running his campaign full steam ahead as the New York primary approaches on June 26. When The Hill News reached out to Nelson and his campaign team concerning whether they believe his father’s actions have any impact on the future of the campaign and the results of the primary, they gave us this statement: “I condemn my father’s crimes and I welcome all who would join me in condemning his crimes. Making this a political issue belittles and devalues the victims of these crimes. The focus should be on the work that remains to be done to ensure that all children, and indeed all people, are protected from exploitation of all kinds.”