Kimball Man Sentenced for Possession Child Pornography

United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that Keith H. Rivera, 35, of Kimball, Nebraska, was sentenced today in Lincoln, Nebraska, by Senior United States District Judge Richard G. Kopf for possession of child pornography.  Rivera was sentenced to 48 months in prison and will also serve 5 years on supervised release.  There is no parole in the federal system.  Rivera will also be required to register as a sex offender after his release from prison.

In March, 2018, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office in Tonasket, Washington, received information from the FBI based on a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The cybertip reported that a specific IP address, email address and user name, later determined to be an individual from the State of Washington, had uploaded child pornography to his file sharing account.  A search warrant was served in Washington on the residence of the person using the account which resulted in the seizure of numerous electronic items, including a cellphone. That phone had messages containing child pornography and further analysis indicated that those messages were sent from a 308 area code in August of 2017.  A check of the telephone number using the 308 area code determined that the number belonged to Rivera. 

A federal search warrant was served at Rivera’s residence in Kimball and Rivera’s phone was seized.  A forensic review of Rivera’s phone found evidence that he possessed the two videos sent to the Washington subject in August, 2017.  Further analysis showed additional images and videos of child pornography that appeared to have been downloaded from the Internet.

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, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.