Jury Finds Lincoln Man Guilty of Receiving Child Pornography and Possessing Child Pornography

United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that on October 24, 2019, following a four-day jury trial in federal court in Omaha, Jack Eugene Knight, age 53, was convicted of two counts of receipt of child pornography and two counts of possession of child pornography.  Knight is being held in federal custody pending sentencing. 

The evidence at trial established that a November 2017 CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploiting Children led federal law enforcements agents from the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Knight for committing federal child exploitation offenses.  As part of the investigation, on August 22, 2018, federal agents executed a search warrant of Knight’s van which is where Knight was living at the time.  Agents seized two cellular telephones, one laptop, and multiple external storage devices.  Knight admitted to agents to collecting child pornography and told agents that child pornography would be located on the devices inside of his van.  Knight also told agents that he had a storage unit in Lincoln, Nebraska which contained more devices containing child pornography.  Agents traveled to Lincoln and collected three laptops from the defendant’s storage unit in Lincoln.

On September 24, 2018, after conducting initial forensics of some of Knight’s devices, agents arrested Knight in Valley, Nebraska.  At the time of the arrest, Knight had a new cellular phone that he obtained after the August 22, 2018 search warrant.  Knight admitted that additional child pornography would be located on this new cellular phone.  Agents seized the new cellular phone for forensic analysis. 

Agents conducted forensics analysis of Knight’s devices.  Among Knight’s laptops, cell phones, and external storage devices, agents located more than 8,000 images of child pornography and 3,000 videos of child pornography.  The images included children under the age of 12 and prepubescent minors engaging in sex acts. 

Knight has prior convictions for attempted sexual assault of a child (1996- Lancaster County, Nebraska), Third Degree Sexual Assault of a Child (2013- York County, Nebraska), and Possession with Intent to Distribute Visual Depiction of Sexually Explicit Acts (2013- York County, Nebraska).  Knight is a registered sex offender in the state of Nebraska.

Knight’s two convictions for receipt of child pornography both carry a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years.  Knight’s two convictions for possession of child pornography both carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.  Knight will be sentenced on January 17, 2020.

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 United States Attorneys’ 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.

The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations.