Winner man sentenced to 25 years for child sex trafficking and pornography

WINNER, S.D. — A Winner man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for child sex trafficking and producing child pornography.

Richard Alan Kucera, 67, was sentenced this week on two counts of sex trafficking of a child and two counts of production of child pornography.

Kucera and co-defendant Ivy Heron, also of Winner, were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2023.

According to trial evidence, between 2019 and 2021, Kucera and Heron conspired to recruit local teenage girls to engage in sexual activity with Kucera in exchange for payment. Heron received a fee for each girl she recruited whom Kucera selected.

Between 2020 and 2021, Heron recruited two 16-year-old girls who were each paid by Kucera to engage in sexual activity. Prosecutors said Kucera also created pornographic images and videos of the minors, which he uploaded to Facebook. The crimes were discovered in June 2022 after the victims were interviewed by law enforcement.

Heron pleaded guilty in April 2025 to conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a child and has since been sentenced to around seven years (84 months) in prison.

Along with his prison term, Kucera was sentenced to five years of supervised release. The court also recommended that he participate in a sex offender treatment program while incarcerated.