Omaha Man Sentenced for Producing Child Pornography

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that James M. Weiss, age 30, of Omaha, was sentenced in United States District Court in Omaha for producing videos of child pornography. Judge Laurie Smith Camp sentenced Weiss to 15 years in prison. There is no parole in the federal system. After Weiss is released from prison he will begin a 30-year term of supervised release and will be required to abide by the laws relating to the registration of sex offenders.

On May 17, 2011, members of the Nebraska State Patrol and the FBI Omaha Cyber Crimes Task Force served a search warrant on a home in Omaha where Weiss was residing. Weiss admitted to collecting child pornography over a 10-year period. Agents located over a thousand videos of child pornography and over a thousand pictures of child pornography. While examining the numerous images, agents discovered depictions of a teenage child engaged in sexually explicit conduct that had been taken by Weiss. Weiss was also observed on the video.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This matter was investigated by the Omaha FBI’s Cyber Crime Task Force (CCTF), of which the Nebraska State Patrol is a partner. The Omaha CCTF is a multi-jurisdictional task force consisting of 11 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies from Nebraska and Iowa. The mission of the Omaha CCTF is to investigate and apprehend high technology criminals and to protect our communities by preventing high technology crime and national security threats involving computers and computer networks. The Omaha CCTF was established on the premise that the capabilities of law enforcement agencies to investigate computer and high technology related crimes are enhanced in a task force setting involving the sharing of resources and expertise.