A 58-year-old Franklin man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison yesterday for distributing child sexual abuse material, after a judge in Asheville said he had escalated his conduct even while already under state supervision as a registered sex offender. Richard Sevear Greene will also serve a lifetime term of supervised release and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger handed down the sentence in Asheville, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The case was also announced on social media by U.S. Attorney WDNC, whose post credited support from FBI Charlotte in building the sentencing case and noted that the Justice Department does not collect comments or messages through that account.
How Investigators Caught Up With Greene
Federal undercover investigators arrested Greene on March 27, 2025, after communicating with him on a public group messaging application dedicated to minor exploitation, where he sent videos depicting prepubescent children. He later admitted to administering several child exploitation chat groups, and during post-arrest interviews he acknowledged possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, per the same Justice Department account.
The investigation drew on more than just the FBI. State and local agencies including the Macon County Sheriff's Office, the United States Forest Service, and the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction's Division of Community Supervision all took part, the department's report notes — a reminder that federal task forces in western North Carolina lean heavily on local sheriff's departments and state probation officers to build these cases.
A Judge Cites a Pattern of Escalation
At sentencing, Judge Reidinger said Greene had “doubled down” by escalating to more serious and harmful conduct while already under supervision, demonstrating he remained a danger to the community and was undeterred by his prior convictions. That prior history matters here: Greene had previously been convicted in North Carolina state court of Third-Degree Sexual Exploitation of a Minor under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-190.17A, a Class H felony that requires registration on the state sex offender registry for at least 30 years.
That earlier conviction is also what pushed his federal exposure so much higher. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A, mandatory minimum sentences for receiving or distributing child sexual abuse material jump from 5 years to 15 years, with maximum terms extending up to 40 years, once a defendant has a prior state sex offense conviction involving a minor, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. That statutory framework left the court with little room to go easy on a repeat offender.
Part of a Broader Federal Push
The prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood, the nationwide Justice Department initiative launched in May 2006 to marshal federal, state, and local law enforcement resources against online child exploitation and to help rescue victims. Federal prosecutions across the region are led by U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December 2025 to head the office overseeing federal criminal matters across 32 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Greene's sentence fits a pattern seen elsewhere in the Western District of North Carolina, where courts have routinely handed down 20-year statutory sentences for severe distribution offenses. In March 2024, an out-of-state offender received the same 20-year term after distributing child sexual abuse material in Boone. Judge Reidinger, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2007, has served as chief judge for the Western District of North Carolina since June 2020.
The case is one of several similar prosecutions Hoodline has tracked across North Carolina in recent months, including a former ECU professor's 42-month term and an Austin man's 30-year sentence in a Charlotte case, both brought under the same Project Safe Childhood framework.
