An Omaha man was sentenced Wednesday to 10 to 15 years in prison on one count of attempted pandering of a minor, closing out a case that began as a far more serious sex trafficking charge involving a child. Matthew Butler, 44, pleaded no contest to the reduced charge under a plea agreement reached in August.
That charge was downgraded from sex trafficking of a minor after Butler accepted the plea deal, according to KETV. As part of the same agreement, two other felony charges against him were dropped. Butler had earlier pleaded no contest to the attempted pandering charge, a detail KETV's earlier coverage of the case also confirmed.
What Court Documents Allege
Court documents cited in the station's reporting state that from November 2023 through February 2026, Butler engaged in sex trafficking and sold sexually explicit images of a child.
Under Nebraska law, the original allegation against Butler carried serious weight. Nebraska statute 28-831, maintained by the Nebraska Legislature, states that any person who engages in sex trafficking of a minor is guilty of a Class IB felony. Butler's plea deal reduced his exposure from that charge down to attempted pandering of a minor, the charge on which he was ultimately sentenced.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Pleas in Omaha Cases
Butler's case is one of several recent Omaha prosecutions involving child exploitation allegations that have ended in negotiated pleas rather than trials. A separate case covered by the Journal Star involved a 63-year-old Omaha man who pleaded no contest for his role in a sex trafficking ring. Another case reported by WOWT described an Omaha sex trafficking prosecution in which charges were amended ahead of trial before ending in a plea deal, and a separate KETV report detailed a 35-year-old Omaha man whose felony child abuse charges were dropped after he was convicted in a related child pornography case.
The pattern extends to sentencing outcomes as well. In another case reported by the same station, a man named Shah Bahrami was sentenced to five years in prison for felony pandering after being arrested in an Omaha child sex trafficking sting.
