Former Branson EMT Sentenced to 21 Years for Producing Child Porn

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Branson, Mo., EMT was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography.

Nicholas James Dickerson, 31, of Branson, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Dickerson to supervised release for the rest of his life following incarceration.

Dickerson, who pleaded guilty on Feb. 26, 2015, was employed by the Western Taney County Fire Protection District as an EMT less than 18 months and was a volunteer firefighter for about eight months. Dickerson was residing in living quarters at a Branson fire station at the time of the offense.

According to court documents, Dickerson sold his iPhone to a Nixa, Mo., business on Feb. 9, 2015. After the transaction was complete, an employee of the business noticed that the “deleted pictures folder” was still present on the screen. The employee saw an image of child pornography and alerted the store owner, who contacted law enforcement.

Investigators identified the nine-year-old victim in the photo, which was taken on Feb. 7, 2015. Dickerson told investigators that he took the photo while sexually abusing the child victim in his living quarters at the fire station, and that he sexually abused the victim on multiple occasions. Dickerson also told investigators he had shown pornography to the child victim on multiple occasions.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."