Wahiawa sex offender to receive sentence in federal child porn case

A sex offender from Wahiawa will be sentenced today for preying on a minor girl in Phoenix and sharing child sexual abuse material with other pedophiles. In October 2024, Homeland Security Investigations in Phoenix got a tip that Richard Alan Chaney, 40, was talking to a 13-year-old girl using Instagram’s direct messaging function to solicit photos and create child pornography. On Aug. 26, 2024, HSI Honolulu received “extracted Instagram messages from HSI Phoenix” between “Minor Victims 1” and Instagram user “hmnnmnmmnm” which HSI agents later confirmed to be Chaney’s account, according to federal court records. Chaney allegedly sent the messages, soliciting and receiving child exploitative material, to the girl between Oct. 24 and Nov. 21, 2023. On Oct. 21, 2024, federal agents executed a search warrant on two phones belonging to Chaney. During the search of the forensic extraction of Chaney’s mobile phone, HSI Honolulu agents found 262 files comprised of 121 images and 141 videos depicting child sexual abuse. “Among these, were three videos and eight image files in which male or female toddlers were involved,” in the sexual abuse, according to federal court documents. HSI agents also found about 1.57 Terabytes of data within 2,698 folders containing 118,384 files with child pornography that Chaney acquired from other pedophiles online. Chaney entered into a plea agreement April 25 and pleaded guilty to a single charge of distribution of child pornography. He was indicted by a federal grand jury Jan. 2 with receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography. In October of 2010, Cheney was sentenced to nine years in prison in California for sexually assaulting two girls, ages 14 and 17, who he met on MySpace.com and Stickam.com. He had been living in Costa Mesa, and pleaded guilty to one felony count involving sexual abuse of a minor under 16 and contacting a child with the intent to distribute pornography; and sexual abuse of a minor who was unconscious, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office. In addition to his nine year sentence, Chaney was required to register as a sex offender, the Orange County DA said in a news release at the time. His attorney in Hawaii, Assistant Federal Public Defender Jacquelyn T. Esser, has painted a picture of a broken man whose childhood was plagued by methamphetamine addled parents that spiraled into a life of chaos. Chaney is asking a federal judge to sentence him to 151 months in prison “followed by a substantial term of supervised release with appropriate treatment conditions.” Chaney’s childhood was “marked by instability, poverty, parental substance abuse, and emotional neglect,” wrote Esser. “Both parents struggled with methamphetamine addiction from his early years, and his mother was also an alcoholic. Their addictions led to frequent fighting, inconsistent employment, and poverty. Though the family while he was growing up was never unhoused, they moved frequently and often went without basic necessities,” Esser wrote, noting that Chaney moved to California in his 20’s. “Drawn to the skateboard and music scene where he hoped to find identity and belonging. Instead, he found instability, substance use, and unhealthy relationships. It was during this dark period he was convicted of a sex offense and incarcerated.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Nammar is prosecuting the case. After completing his state prison time and parole in California, Chaney returned to Wahiawa and got involved with a church that helps the homeless. Through that ministry and its pastor, Chaney reconnected with his parents. After caring for his mother during a long, bedridden illness, her passing, coupled with the loss of his father, left him lost and he fell back into his illegal behavior, court records show. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Micah W.J. Smith, Chaney apologized to his victims for his “atrocious “I was not in a good place mentally and spiritually … I feel disgust and shame with myself knowing that because I shared those videos its like I was agreeing with the horrendous actions that happen to them,” Chaney wrote. “For this, and more, I am truly sorry.”