OMAHA, Neb. -- A 57-year-old Butler County man was sentenced to prison on a child pornography charge on Thursday.

Acting U.S. Attorney Susan Lehr announced that 57-year-old Samuel Richardson, of Brainard, was sentenced in federal court to 70 months in prison for possession of child pornography. There is no parole in the federal system. Following the completion of his prison sentence, Richardson will serve a 10-year term of supervised release. Richardson was also ordered to pay $5,100 in special assessments. 

Richardson came to law enforcement’s attention stemming from multiple cyber tips from Microsoft for activity occurring on the Bing search engine between March and May 2021 involving images of child pornography.

On February 10, 2022, the Nebraska State Patrol executed a search warrant at Richardson’s home in Brainard. During the search warrant, law enforcement seized Richardson’s computer, phone, and an external hard drive. Richardson was interviewed and admitted to having seen at least one of the images from the cyber tips. Richardson admitted to viewing child pornography and that law enforcement would find child pornography on his computer and external hard drive. Richardson’s devices were forensically examined, and 5,000 images of child pornography were found.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

This case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.