North Platte Man Sentenced for Production of Child Pornography

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Billy Joe Schrader, 32, formerly of North Platte, Nebraska, was sentenced today in Lincoln, Nebraska, to 30 years in prison by Senior United States District Judge Richard G. Kopf, for producing child pornography.  After his release from prison Schrader will serve an additional 25 years under supervised release, and be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

In November of 2013, one of the child victims in this case, (there were three), revealed to a therapist that he believed another child had been sexually assaulted by Schrader.  The information was reported to the North Platte Police Department and a search warrant was obtained for Schrader's residence.  At the time the search was performed, law enforcement officers seized computer equipment and other items.  Schrader and a co-defendant were also interviewed at that time and both were subsequently arrested and lodged in jail.  After a forensic examination of the equipment seized during the search warrant, over 75,000 images of child pornography produced by Schrader and his co-defendant were identified.

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 the North Platte Police Department and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and prosecuted jointly with the Nebraska Attorney General's Office.