San Francisco, California - Douglas Pippert was sentenced to 210 months in prison for production of child pornography, announced United States Attorney Alex G. Tse and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett.  The sentence was handed down Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Vince G. Chhabria.

Pippert, 49, formerly of Montana, pleaded guilty to the charge on June 19, 2018.  According to his plea agreement, Pippert admitted he produced pornographic images of at least two minor victims while they were unconscious. Pippert engaged in sexual acts with one of the minors, while he was conscious and unconscious, and recorded the molestation.  Both of the minors would sometimes stay at Pippert’s home.  Pippert also developed the persona of a minor female on Facebook in order to trick teenage boys into sending him images of their genitals.   

According to documents filed by the federal government, law enforcement agents discovered approximately 400,000 images and 50 hours of videos involving child pornography on Pippert’s electronic devices.  

In addition to the prison term, Judge Chhabria sentenced Pippert to a ten-year term of supervised release.  Pippert currently is in federal custody and will begin serving his sentence immediately.

Assistant United States Attorneys Neal C. Hong and Meredith B. Osborn are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kimberly Richardson.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI and the Fort Bragg Police Department.