Joplin man sentenced to 12 years on child pornography charge

A federal court judge sentenced a Joplin man to 12 years in prison on a child pornography charge during a hearing this morning in U. S. District Court in Springfield.

Judge Douglas Harpool also sentenced Robert E. Riggs, 46, to 10 years of supervised release following his imprisonment.

In sentencing memorandums filed last week, the government had asked that Riggs serve 15 years in prison, while Riggs' attorney suggested 10 years would be a proper sentence.

Riggs' crimes were detailed in the government's memorandum:

On February 24, 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) referred 21 Cybertipline Reports (CTR) to the Southwest Missouri Cybercrimes Task Force (SWMCCTF) for further investigation.

The CTRs were generated after 38 images depicting child pornography were discovered in a Dropbox user’s cloud storage folder on January 13, 2022. Dropbox promptly notified NCMEC of the discovery and identified the user as “Robbie Riggs.”

The IP addresses used to access the account were also provided to NCMEC by Dropbox. Task Force Officer (TFO) Brian Martin reviewed the imagery submitted with the CTRs.

Each of the 38 files depicted minors, some as young as five years old, engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including oral and anal sexual intercourse.

On March 1, 2022, SWMCCTF TFO Chip Root obtained a warrant to search the Dropbox account in question from Jasper County, Missouri, Circuit Court Judge Dean Dankelson. Dropbox provided data responsive to the search warrant, which included over 100 images depicting child pornography.
The materials provided by Dropbox also included an image of a billing statement addressed to ROBERT RIGGS at 1405 Katherine Avenue, Joplin, Missouri, a photograph of a prescription bottle with the name ROBERT RIGGS typed upon it along with his address, and several other images linking the Dropbox account to ROBERT RIGGS.