Registered Richland sex offender is accused again of sharing child pornography

A Richland registered sex offender is accused of sharing more than a thousand pieces of child pornography in an undercover operation.

Gerald A. Nott, 62, allegedly provided about 1,600 images and videos to a detective with the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children over the course of 2 1/2 months early in 2023, according to court documents.

He has been charged in Benton County Superior Court with three counts of dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexual conduct and one count of possession of child pornography.

He is being held in Benton County jail in lieu of $600,000 bail.

Nott already is a registered sex offender after a pair of prior cases in Oregon, according to Benton County court documents.

In one, he recorded prepubescent children in their bedrooms and in the other he molested a 7-year-old girl and produced depictions of that abuse.

According to public records, he served a little more than a year in prison for the crimes starting in June 2004.

In the most recent allegations, Nott allegedly used a peer-to-peer program to share some sexually-graphic files online.

While normally the program would take pieces of files from various users, the detective was able to isolate these files as coming from a single online address, according to Benton County court documents.

Investigators traced that address to a Richland property owned by Nott’s mother. There were two homes on the lot — one where Nott lived and the other was occupied by his mother.

As they investigated, police say they learned Nott would go to his mother’s home to share the files, according to court documents.

Police got a search warrant for the house and found a computer tablet under a China cabinet in the home.

Nott reportedly admitted to investigators that he used the tablet to download the child pornography, and tried to get rid of the videos and images before police arrived, according to court documents.

Officers found at least two videos still on the tablet device.