74-Year-Old Eureka Man Convicted of Viewing Child Pornography on Library Computer

Judges Gavel
In 2001, Richard Rood was sentenced to 41 months in prison for Federal child pornography charges. He had two previous state convictions on other child pornography charges.

Press release from the US Department of Justice:

Richard Rood was sentenced today to 150 months in prison for possession of child pornography, announced United States Attorney Alex G. Tse and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John Bennett. The sentence was handed down by the Honorable William H. Alsup, United States District Judge.

Rood, 74, of Eureka, pleaded guilty to the charge on September 4, 2018. According to the plea agreement, Rood admitted he used publicly available computers at the Humboldt County Library to locate, view, and save images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Rood saved the images and videos to his personal email accounts and he also emailed the images and videos to his cellular phone.  Using email, Rood also traded images and videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct with others. He admitted that he possessed 230 images and 10 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Some of the images and videos, Rood admitted, depicted sadistic or masochistic portrayals of minors as young as 5 years of age.  Further, Rood admitted he obtained and sent images to minors by email.

A federal grand jury indicted Rood on May 31, 2018, charging him with one count each of distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C §§ 2252(a)(2) and 2252(a)(4)(B). Pursuant to his plea agreement, Rood pleaded guilty to the possession charge and the remaining charges were dismissed.  The possession charge, in light of Rood’s history, carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 120 months in prison.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Alsup sentenced the defendant to a 10-year period of supervised release. Rood already is a registered sex offender.  The defendant has been in custody since his arrest in July of 2018 and will begin serving his sentence immediately.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan U. Lee is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kimberly Richardson. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

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39 Comments
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Willie Caso-Mayhem
Guest
5 years ago

Good morning read Kym,but I thought there was caps/blocks put on public computers especially ones that children can use against such stuff?

Y Knot?
Guest
Y Knot?
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Maybe he accessed Usenet Newsgroups for this, filters may not work on email?

Chuck U
Guest
Chuck U
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Enjoy the vacation!!!! Anyone that has a problem can, well, carrot off. Fantastic overtime on the Camp fire!

Sparklemahn
Guest
Sparklemahn
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Have a nice one, Kym! Give thanks for this website.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

A trip to the public library will disabuse you of the idea that there is much in the line of filters on the computers. I remember someone from the library saying in an article a couple of years ago that they were not in the business of screening the public’s use of their computers.

Tjay
Guest
Tjay
5 years ago

most filters work purely off of keywords, they look at the context, naming and metadata on the page someone requests to view. Depending on the filter it will either bllock individual sections of content or pages.

there are filters that look at images colors and ratios of colors. so if there is a large percentage of flesh tones or mstch copyrighted porn. then the images are blocked.

the problem is they primarily only work on web content. they don’t function reliably if any on services that bypass web browsers. Video is also something that is difficult to censor. similarly these filters will do little if anything on pages with no context of a banned subject.

the simple fact is if someone has designed content to get past filtering and monitoring its likely to get through without an extremely invasive system, with an extremely high percentage of false positives. with to many false positives it prevents people from using the computer for much of anything, often resulting in staff/ admins disabling functionality.

Me_too
Guest
Me_too
5 years ago

There are easy ways around the filters. These guys know all about them. They are the same technology used in China to proxy the web.

Pike Mortar
Guest
5 years ago

My understanding, and I may be wrong, is that there are no filters on Hum library computers, with the thought being that it is a censorship / 1st amendment issue.

10 years in prison is a death sentence at 74. I hate pedophiles but I’m not sure I’m on board with that.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Sheesh. It’s not a “death” sentence. It might very well be a life sentence.

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
5 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

From the article this is at least his 4th child porn conviction. This leopard isn’t changing its spots. If he dies in prison the world will be a safer, better place.

guest
Guest
guest
5 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

I agree. He needs to be put away. It doesn’t matter how old he is. He should have thought about it before he did what he did. He shouldn’t have been free to roam the streets in the first place, given his prior crimes.

We need this world to be a safer, better place…

Old guy
Guest
Old guy
5 years ago
Reply to  guest

I read that the sex offender had a 97% rate of reoffending? Nothing seemed to work, ie: treatment with medications,counseling heck ankle bracelets.So sad,

Local farmer
Guest
Local farmer
5 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

I agree. Child abusers are only cured of their disease definitively by one thing… They need way harsher punishments. It’s not cool at all how these parasites get out to repeat.

Mariahgirl
Guest
Mariahgirl
5 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

He got 150 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release. I also checked the internet and it seems some libraries allow you to view porn and some don’t but this guy had already been convicted and as a registered sex offender he is not supposed to view or share and he also transmitted it to his email and phone which is against the law no matter who or where it is being sent.

CAROL -
Guest
CAROL -
5 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

seems reasonable to me, not his first time at the rodeo, knew what he was doing and didn’t give a crap as long as he got his jollies

A concerned grandparent
Guest
A concerned grandparent
5 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Well I certainly am. He’s on his third sentence for the same disgusting thing. What if it were your child/sister whatever in the pictures or videos? The harm done to these poor children is incalculable. He needs to be away from children forever.

Michael R Ross
Guest
Michael R Ross
5 years ago

Humboldt is a scary place! Preverts everywhere! I don`t think I`m going to go there anymore. I`m a big, sort of rough looking middle aged guy; however, some Humboldt prevert may try to jump me and who knows what he`d try to do.

Scary!

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Michael R Ross

And just what do you think happened to the children in those pictures to supply the demand?

Elvis costanza
Guest
Elvis costanza
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Exactly

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
5 years ago
Reply to  Michael R Ross

I don’t have statistics but I suspect the prevalence of this type of thing is not much different in Humboldt than in California or the nation as a whole.

Do you have any fact-based reason to think it’s better where you live?

Michael R Ross
Guest
Michael R Ross
5 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

I believe my road is entirely prevert free. There was one child molester caught a few years ago and he`s locked up. I knew him slightly and while I considered him somewhat unsavory, I didn`t think he was preverted.

Perusing the “Megan`s list” website is enlightening and I invite all to take a look at it. What is interesting and very intriguing is most of those on the list have physical similarities. Mostly it`s rubbery facial features that seem common among child molesters. I have no understanding of this and perhaps a good geneticist could give an explanation.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Michael R Ross

A result of too much screen time indoors maybe.

Sparklemahn
Guest
Sparklemahn
5 years ago
Reply to  Michael R Ross

Some of them are alcoholics. Just sayin’.

Old guy
Guest
Old guy
5 years ago
Reply to  Michael R Ross

Actually, I heard an ad for prevention and family members/ friends or known folks were the largest category

toobad
Guest
toobad
5 years ago
Reply to  Michael R Ross

good idea don’t come here it’s scarrry here.

Sparklemahn
Guest
Sparklemahn
5 years ago
Reply to  toobad

NY is where you’d rather stay.
You’ll get allergic smelling hay.
You’ll just adore a penthouse view.
Darling I love you but you can have Park Ave.

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago

Edit.

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago

I like stars,

Yes, of course, you’re right.

Edit.

Robin Newby
Guest
Robin Newby
5 years ago

I am surprised there is no picture of the guy with this article, but even more surprised the name (Richard Rood ) is not listed on Meagan’s Law. Am I in error or is there another reason?

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago

“Rood already is a registered sex offender”. it would be great if the person in charge of registering sex offenders actually did their job. he is not on any database and Mylife.com rates him a 4.05% with no priors. he lists himself as a Christian and even has a nice little bio.

Will
Guest
Will
5 years ago

Maybe, just maybe, he got caught on purpose this time. He’ll be taken care of in jail. Yes, I’m making some assumptions here, just a thought.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

(PARENTS BE AWARE) Something every parent should know about Humboldt County Library in Eureka. More sex offenders live near the library, than anywhere else in Eureka because there are no schools in that neighborhood. People in Humboldt should never leave a child unattended at that library I watched a man casing my own daughter when she went to drop off books in the outside book drop, when she was just 9 years old. I never let my daughters go there by themselves ever after that, and that was 20 something years ago. Looks like things have gotten worse, now that all the junkies hang out there too.

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

not even close to being true. did you even look at the map?
https://www.homefacts.com/offenders/California/Humboldt-County/Eureka/95501.html?searched=1

Steph
Guest
Steph
5 years ago

Ive been in the willits library and an older man was watching Porn! Turns our he brought a dvd from home or somethinf

Stormy
Guest
Stormy
5 years ago

The Eureka library has a security guard and the public computers are highly visible. He may have been using the Wi-Fi and his own laptop or smart phone. Too obvious or risky otherwise.

That being said, the security people are hillbillies and the library workers numbed by all the street denizens. The library is a zoo.

ROB
Guest
ROB
5 years ago

Several years ago I was a mgr. At a popular big box store. RRood was a maintenance worker there. One day the FBI came into the business and arrested RRood for child pornos and I didn’t see him around town for years. He ran his own cleaning service for some time afterwards….now this AGAIN !!bye richie bye…

Poppins
Guest
Poppins
5 years ago

I would hope that the federal law enforcement folks would be able to run a computer forensic investigation on the IP addressed the monster accessed to try and locate and rescue the children depicted in the porn the man accessed. Horribly to read of the ease in which the monster go to the images and videos.

Francene colegrove
Guest
Francene colegrove
5 years ago

This sick Ol man shouldn’t even be able to hangout at a public library where there are always children.. WTF