Recidivist Sex Offender Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Richard Sevear Greene, 58, of Franklin, N.C., was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday for distributing and attempting to distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM), announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Greene was also ordered to register as a sex offender and serve a lifetime term of supervised release after his release from prison. According to court documents and the court proceedings, Greene was previously convicted in North Carolina state court of Third Degree Sexual Exploitation of a Minor and was required to register as a sex offender. In February 2025, while Greene was a registered sex offender, he used a messaging application to communicate with individuals in a public group on the application whose members were known to be interested in the sexual exploitation of minors. An investigator working with the FBI in an undercover capacity began communicating with Greene. Over the course of their communications, Greene sent the undercover investigator videos depicting prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. On March 27, 2025, the FBI arrested Greene. During an interview, Greene admitted to possessing CSAM and to sending CSAM through the messaging application to others. He also admitted to being the administrator or owner of several chat groups on the messaging application that were dedicated to the sexual exploitation of minors. In imposing Greene’s sentence, Judge Reidinger noted that in reoffending, Greene had “doubled down” and not only returned to the same criminal conduct that he had previously been convicted of, but had engaged in even more serious and harmful behaviors, and that Greene’s conduct clearly shows that he is a danger to the community and has not been deterred by prior convictions and sentences. Greene is currently in federal custody and will be transferred to custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation to a federal facility. The investigation was led by the FBI with assistance from the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, United States Forest Service, and the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction - Division of Community Supervision. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Benjamin of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case. 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 U.S. 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.