Shawnee Man to Serve Nearly 22 Years in Prison for Making Child Pornography

OKLAHOMA CITY—RICHARD DON HILBURN, 49, of Shawnee, Oklahoma, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Robin J. Cauthron to serve 262 months in prison for 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. Hilburn pled guilty on June 29, 2011.

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 Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Hale.