Former pastor faces prison time, fines in federal porn case

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March 27, 2009

Brad Kellar The Zope Gazette Fri Mar 27, 2009, 05:57 PM CDT

A former Royse City pastor has pleaded guilty to federal charges he possessed and trafficked in child pornography on his church’s computers.

Steve Richardson pleaded guilty last Thursday, March 19, to two federal counts; one alleging transporting and shipping child pornography and one alleging the possession of child pornography before Magistrate Judge Irma C Ramirez. Richardson is facing a maximum sentence on the transporting count of between five and 20 years in prison; a fine of up to $250,000; a possible term of supervised release of from five years to life following any term of imprisonment and restitution. For the possession charge, Richardson is facing a maximum of up to 10 years in prison, a fine, supervised release and restitution.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 15.

Richardson, 36, the former pastor of First United Methodist Church, was arrested Sept. 24, 2008 by agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the plea agreement, Richardson has agreed to relinquish his rights to computers which were seized from the church.

Richardson has told prosecutors other church officials were unaware of his use of the computers to commit the offenses to which he pleaded Thursday.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office issued following the arrest, Richardson used Google “Hello” software to distribute the pornography.

On December 20, 2007, Richardson, using the user name “cowboysspades,” distributed an image of child pornography to an undercover ICE agent. The investigation began in August 2007 when ICE Special Agents executed a search warrant in a child pornography investigation at the residence of M.H., who consented to agents assuming his online presence on Google Hello to communicate with individuals involved in distributing child pornography. On December 20, 2007, an ICE Special Agent, using M.H.’s Google Hello identity in an undercover capacity, communicated with and received an image of child pornography from Hello user “cowboysspades.” M.H. received a total of six images from “cowboysspades,” one of which fits the definition of child pornography; the other images would be considered child erotica.

On February 1, 2008, the ICE Special Agent, operating undercover, was again contacted by “cowboysspades,” who sent M.H. five images appearing to be child erotica.

On September 26, 2007, ICE Special Agents executed a search warrant at the residence of R.F., which resulted in the seizure of computers and arrest of R.F. for possession of child pornography. R.F. advised that one of the screen names that he remembered trading with on Google Hello was “cowboysspades” and that “cowboysspades” had sent him “homemade” images within the past three months. Examination of R.F.’s computer revealed a folder named “from coyboysspades,” which contained approximately 30 images of child pornography.

The Google Hello records for “cowboysspades lists the email address as “girlpedolover@hushmail.com.” Further investigation revealed that the Yahoo! e-mail name “girlpedolover@yahoo.com” was registered to Richardson, with the same IP address as one of the nine IP addresses “cowboysspades” used to logon to his Hello account.

Further forensic investigation revealed additional chats between “cowboysspades” and others. In one, “cowboysspades” received and distributed dozens of images of child pornography including several images of infants engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

On Sept. 24, 2008, a search warrant was executed at First United Methodist Church in Royse City, Texas. A Special Agent with ICE spoke to Richardson, who admitted that he used the Google Hello name “cowboysspades.” The affidavit also states that Richardson admitted trading child pornography using his work computer.

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