Boyle County Man Convicted of Production of Child Pornography and Distribution of Methamphetamine

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Richard Eugene Derringer, 47, previously of Junction City, Kentucky was convicted by a jury, following a three-day trial, on Thursday, before Senior United States District Judge Joseph M. Hood.  Derringer was found guilty of using a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, for the purpose of producing child pornography; conspiracy to use a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, for the purpose of producing child pornography; possession of child pornography; and distribution of methamphetamine.  Derringer was acquitted of one count of attempted distribution of child pornography.

According to the evidence at trial, Jacquolyn Walls-Land, who previously pleaded guilty to one count of using a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography, took videos of the minor female victim while Derringer sexually abused the victim.  The sexual abuse, and recording of it, occurred on March 11, 2018.  The evidence established that Derringer forced the minor victim to smoke methamphetamine with him, on multiple occasions, during an approximate 3-hour period while the sexual abuse occurred.  Derringer even took hits of the methamphetamine himself and then exhaled into the minor victim’s mouth.  The minor victim reported the sexual abuse and forced drug use to her mother, approximately 8 hours after the abuse ended, and the minor victim was taken to a local hospital, where she tested positive for methamphetamine. 

Derringer is scheduled to be sentenced on November 25, 2019.  He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years in prison, and up to 30 years, on each of the conspiracy and production counts, up to 10 years on the possession of the visual depictions of the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and not more than 20 years for the distribution of methamphetamine.  He also faces fines of not more than $250,000 on the production-related offenses and $2,000,000 on the distribution of methamphetamine conviction.  Additionally, he faces a mandatory minimum of five years, and up to life, of supervised release, following the service of his prison sentence.  However, any sentence will be imposed by the Court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statutes.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky: James Robert Brown, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Richard Sanders, Commissioner, Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the jury’s verdict. 

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Kentucky State Police.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Marye and Mary Melton represented the United States.