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A convicted sex offender from Wahiawa was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in federal prison after he preyed on a minor girl in Arizona and shared child pornography with other pedophiles. Richard Alan Chaney, 40, must also pay $3,000 each to three minor victims, for a total of $9,000 in fines. Chaney will be on supervised release for 20 years after he is released from his 180 months in prison, according to the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Micah W.J. Smith. Chaney, who stands 5 feet and 5 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, must register again as a sex offender, according to federal court He was a registered sex offender in California and Hawaii after a nine-year prison stay in California in 2010 for sex crimes involving a 14-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl. “You must comply with the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act as directed by the probation officer, the Bureau of Prisons, or any state sex offender registration agency in which you reside, work, are a student, or were convicted of a qualifying offense,” read the terms of Chaney’s supervised Chaney must submit to periodic polygraph testing when he gets out of prison and cannot have contact with anyone under the age of 18. Chaney entered into a plea agreement April 25 and pleaded guilty to a single charge of distribution of child pornography. He was indicted by a federal grand jury Jan. 2 on charges of receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography. A psychologist who evaluated Chaney determined that when he gets out of prison, his “overall supervision needs to be moderate,” according to federal court documents. Chaney’s treatment should emphasize a “structured sex-offense-specific treatment and supervision” and monitoring and therapy for depression. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for low self-esteem and social anxiety, interpersonal and communication skills training, and trauma and grief counseling are recommended for Chaney. “Development of a prosocial support network through church, work, and structured activities,” the psychologist recommended. In October 2024, Homeland Security Investigations in Phoenix learned that Chaney was talking to an underage girl using Instagram’s direct messaging to ask for photos and create child pornography. HSI Honolulu agents got the contents of Chaney’s conversations with the girl over Instagram. Chaney solicited and received child exploitative material from the girl between Oct. 24 and Nov. 21, 2023. HSI Honolulu agents executed a search warrant on Chaney’s two phones, and found 262 files comprising 121 images and 141 videos depicting child sexual abuse. “Among these, were three videos and eight image files in which male or female toddlers were involved,” in the sexual abuse, according to federal court documents. HSI agents also found about 1.57 terabytes of data within 2,698 folders containing 118,384 files with child pornography that Chaney got from other pedophiles online. The 180 months in prison was more than the 151 months Chaney asked Smith to sentence him to. Chaney, who fled Hawaii in his 20’s after a childhood ruined by methamphetamine addicted parents, apologized to the community and his victims. He noted in a letter to Smith that their impact statements drove home the dreadful nature of his crimes. “I will take all the classes/treatment very seriously knowing there are some things wrong with me and I need to fix my problems before I can enter back into society,” wrote Chaney. “I also know now, I have friends and family who love me.”
