A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on April 11, 2008, RICHARD D. HEATHERLY, 58, of Collinsville, Illinois, was sentenced in the United States District Court in East St. Louis for eight (8) counts of distribution of child pornography. HEATHERLY pled guilty to all eight counts on January 8, 2008. HEATHERLY was sentenced to 97 months of imprisonment, a supervised release term of life, a fine of $400, and was ordered to pay an $800 special assessment.

The investigation which resulted in this conviction began in August 2005 and was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Collinsville Police Department.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.