Fort Myers man sentenced for distributing, possessing child sex abuse media

Writer: Nicholas Karsen
Published: Updated:
A corrections officer leads a prisoner forward. Photo via WINK News.
A corrections officer leads a prisoner forward. Photo via WINK News.

A Fort Myers man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for distributing and possessing child sex abuse media.

Richard Edward Brillhart, 44, was sentenced on Tuesday after being found guilty of the charges on Feb. 7, 2024.

Brillhart was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and register as a sex offender.

An investigation was conducted from April to August 2021 by Homeland Security Investigations’ Southwest Florida Inter-Agency Child Exploitation and Persons Trafficking Task Force, along with the assistance of the Fort Myers Police Department, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Louisiana Bureau of Investigations.

According to cyber tips provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Brillhart was involved in the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material on various social media platforms. 

A search warrant was issued for Brillhart’s home in September of 2021, where his cell phone was seized.

The phone revealed the explicit media of children being abused.

According to the Florida State Attorney’s Office, Brillhart had a prior conviction for possession of materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors from 2004.

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