Former Blair Assistant Principal Sentenced for Child Pornography

United States Attorney Steven Russell announced the Daniel Hutsell, 42, of Blair, Nebraska, was sentenced on June 28, 2023, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for distribution of child pornography. United States District Judge Brian C. Buescher sentenced Hutsell to 60 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, Hutsell with begin a five-year term of supervised release. Hutsell will be required to register as a sex offender.

On or about September 13, 2021, Stelivo, LLC, a business that runs several real-time chat websites, including freechatnow.com, identified one image of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that was distributed through its server. Through a cybertip, Stelivo reported that a user with a freechatnow.com username, G|teachrr, sent the image to other freechatnow.com users. The image showed an 8- to 10-year-old female child exposing her genitalia in a sexually explicit manner.

Stelivo captured the IP address of the user account that was used to distribute the image. Law enforcement obtained information related to the IP address, which ultimately identified Hutsell as the subscriber and that he resided in Nebraska. Stelivo identified additional uploads of images from the same username and IP address using freechatnow.com, which included approximately 10 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

On November 30, 2021, law enforcement executed a search of Hutsell’s residence in Blair. At the time of the search warrant, Hutsell, an assistant principal with Blair Community Schools, admitted to law enforcement that he used a computer and freechatnow.com to trade pornography. Hutsell admitted he had seen the previously mentioned image of the 8- to 10-year-old female child exposing her genitalia in a sexually explicit manner.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.