Omaha Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison on Child Pornography Charges

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Joshua M. Meyer, 33, was sentenced in federal court in Omaha for distributing and possessing child pornography. The Honorable Lyle E. Strom, Senior United States District Court Judge, sentenced Meyer to a 10-year term in federal prison. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, Meyer will begin a 10-year term of supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender.

On January 27, 2013, Meyer displayed an image of child pornography involving a 2-year-old victim during a webcam session. The incident was reported to law enforcement.

A search warrant was served on Meyer’s residence in Omaha on May 24, 2013. More than 300 videos of child pornography were recovered from computers seized from his home. The average age of the child victims was between 5 and 10 years. Meyer admitted to collecting child pornography over 8 years and deleting his collection six months earlier.

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.

The 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 Attorney’s 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.