Omaha Man Sentenced to 80 Months for Child Pornography

Raymond Kudera, age 39, was sentenced June 22 and June 23, 2015, in the United States District Court in Omaha, Nebraska, for receiving child pornography. Kudera was convicted after a jury trial. The Honorable Laurie Smith Camp sentenced Kudera to 80 months imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal prison system. After his release from prison, Kudera must serve a 10-year term of supervised release and register as a sex offender. Kudera was ordered to pay restitution to one of the child victims whose videos he viewed in the sum of $3,000.

Kudera used a file-sharing program to receive child pornography over the internet. On August 17, 2012, agents with Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant at Kudera’s apartment.  Forensic analysis of Kudera’s computer indicated that his last 30 internet searches were for child pornography. Although he had deleted his child pornography, various images were recovered from a Thumbs.db file. Further forensics revealed a total of 267 child pornographic videos that had been downloaded from a file-sharing program and subsequently deleted.

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.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations.