Richard Rood, a 74-year-old man from Eureka, California, has been sentenced to 12½ years in prison for possessing child pornography, a federal crime that has left the community shocked and outraged.
According to court documents, Rood pleaded guilty to the charge on September 4, 2018, and was subsequently sentenced by the Honorable William H. Alsup, United States District Judge, on Wednesday, February 13, 2019.
The investigation, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, revealed that Rood used publicly available computers at the Humboldt County Library to locate, view, and save images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Rood saved the images and videos to his personal email accounts and also emailed the images and videos to his cellular phone. He admitted to trading images and videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct with others via email.
Rood admitted to possessing 230 images and 10 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, some of which depicted sadistic or masochistic portrayals of minors as young as 5 years of age.
Rood has already been in custody since his arrest in July 2018 and will begin serving his sentence immediately. In addition to the prison term, Judge Alsup sentenced the defendant to a 10-year period of supervised release.
Rood is also a registered sex offender. The prosecution is being led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan U. Lee, with the assistance of Kimberly Richardson.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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