A Grand Forks man was sentenced in U.S. District Court Wednesday to 6½ years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.
Richard Waldo Jr., 33, pleaded guilty to the charges on Aug. 2 and will face 10 years of supervised probation following his incarceration.
On Feb. 2, North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations officers downloaded child pornography from Waldo in a file-sharing sting.
The BCI obtained a warrant, searching Waldo's Grand Forks home. He was home at the time of the search and admitted to viewing and downloading child porn. Agents seized hundreds of images and videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, with incidents occurring from August 2010 to February 2011.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has identified 38 known victims depicting 149 images and 15 videos that were recovered.
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The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl in front of U.S. District Court Judge Ralph R. Erickson.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat child exploitation and abuse.
