Shawnee Man Pleads Guilty to Making Child Pornography

OKLAHOMA CITY—RICHARD DON HILBURN, 49, of Shawnee, Oklahoma, pled guilty today to producing child pornography using a young child, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

According to court records, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in Los Angeles, California caught Hilburn sharing child pornography online during an undercover sting operation. Local FBI agents then got a search warrant and seized his computer hard drives from his Shawnee home. FBI forensic analysis of Hilburn’s computer hard drives discovered approximately 12,000 pictures and 1,000 videos of child pornography. Among the images were multiple photographs of a young child’s genitals that Hilburn himself had taken with his iPhone.

United States District Judge Robin J. Cauthron will sentence Hilburn in approximately 90 days. He faces not less than 15 years and up to 30 years in federal prison.

This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, the flagship program in the Department of Justice’s National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, and was the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Hale.