A Former Omaha Police officer was sentenced on child pornography charges.
In federal court, Christopher Groth, 39, was sentenced to 36 years in prison for one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Following his sentence, Groth will serve 20 years on supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $3,000 special assessment which will contribute to funds established for victims of these types of crimes. There is no parole in the federal system.
In February 2022 the FBI initiated an investigation into several cyber tips from Yahoo! which indicated that Groth was uploading child pornography onto his email accounts. After a search warrant was received it was determined that several of the images located on the account were likely original productions created by Groth involving a child which depicted sexually explicit conduct. A residential search warrant and arrest warrant were executed immediately following this discovery. Groth, who was determined to be a police officer with the Omaha Police Department, was arrested while at work without incident and was very soon after removed from his position with OPD.
A review of Groth’s devices and accounts conducted by the FBI revealed eight images which were produced by Groth on two occasions in 2020 involving a single child victim. Groth emailed these images to himself in February 2021 as a method of saving the files. A search of Groth’s phone and email account revealed more than 700 child exploitation files depicting other unidentified children which he appeared to receive online and subsequently saved using his email account.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood and the FBI.