A former Douglas County Sheriff's Office deputy accused of using artificial intelligence to generate nude images of coworkers and minors was arrested Thursday morning by the Nebraska State Patrol. Nolan Dudik, who was fired from the agency in May, had already lost his law enforcement license the week before his arrest, and Sheriff Aaron Hanson said Dudik will now face justice in court.
Dudik joined the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in 2023 and was assigned in July 2025 as a school resource officer at Westview High School, according to wowt.com. The school has said he last worked there in December 2025, per ketv.com. That same month, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a cyber tip that would ultimately upend his career.
A Tip That Triggered an Internal Investigation
The cyber tip identified numerous images of potential child sexual abuse material connected to an iCloud account tied to Dudik, prompting the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to open an internal affairs investigation in December 2025. Sheriff Hanson said he ordered the probe and placed Dudik on leave as soon as he learned Dudik was under investigation. According to the sheriff, Dudik had no prior disciplinary-action history before the case began.
Appeal documents later alleged that Dudik photographed on-duty coworkers and juvenile female members of the Sheriff's Office Explorer Program, then manipulated the images with AI to create nude photos, according to ketv.com's reporting on the Douglas County Commission hearing. Per Sheriff Hanson, those images allegedly involved coworkers and minors from the Explorer Program at the sheriff's law enforcement center. The documents also alleged Dudik tried to buy alcohol while on duty and in uniform and was heavily intoxicated during duty hours, the station reports, and authorities said he caused a disturbance at his home that resulted in a 911 call.
Firing, Appeal and a Sealed Criminal Case
Dudik was fired on May 5 after the internal investigation uncovered the policy violations, ketv.com reported. He appealed the termination to the Douglas County Sheriff's Merit Commission, arguing the agency lacked sufficient evidence and had violated his rights, according to 1011now.com. The sheriff's office denied that appeal based on additional findings, and the Merit Commission indicated it would work toward setting a hearing date sometime between then and October.
Separately from the internal process, a criminal investigation was underway involving the Nebraska State Patrol, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office. Ketv.com quoted a description of it as “a sealed investigation that's occurring between the state patrol, the FBI, and the United States attorney's office.” Sheriff Hanson said that investigation was conducted outside his agency, though the Douglas County Sheriff's Office cooperated with the State Patrol throughout.
Sheriff Hanson's Response
Hanson did not mince words about his former deputy, calling Dudik “a piece of crap” and saying he let down the county, disgraced the profession, disrespected the agency, and embarrassed Douglas County Sheriff's Office members. The sheriff said Dudik's actions put all of the department's work at risk and that placing him on long-term paid leave was never an option, arguing taxpayers should not pay for what he described as a bad cop sitting idle.
Hanson also said the department moved to protect Dudik's employment-law due process specifically to prevent any disciplinary action from being challenged later and his job or badge being restored on a technicality. He said the sheriff's office was as transparent as possible and acted as quickly as it could throughout the investigation. According to Hanson, Dudik's law enforcement officer license was revoked in the week before his arrest, as first reported by WOWT.
Part of a Broader Pattern
The case echoes a similar one out of southern Indiana, where a man was accused this year of photographing coworkers and using AI to create fake nude images, including one involving a 17-year-old, according to WAVE 3 News. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reported that more than 12,000 reports in its 2025 data involved child sexual abuse material identified within AI training data, underscoring how the technology has become a growing concern for investigators nationwide.
Nebraska law, under a statute from the Nebraska Legislature, makes it unlawful to knowingly make, direct, create or otherwise generate child sexual abuse material. A related statute defines a visual depiction as something that may be produced, morphed, altered or modified by electronic, mechanical, computer-generated or other means. It remains unclear what specific criminal charges, if any, have been filed against Dudik following his arrest.
