A former Seattle resident, Richard Stanley Maness Jr., 38, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his involvement in producing child sexual abuse imagery and orchestrating the abuse of children in Vietnam. The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd.
Maness was convicted of two federal felonies in August 2025 after a three-day jury trial. During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones addressed the harm inflicted on the young victims, stating, “These victims were not candy in a dish for you to take out the one you liked…. In the mind of that 7-year-old you were a monster directing the pain she suffered.”
U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd commented on the case: “In recommending this 30-year-prison sentence, our office is doing everything it can to protect innocent children here and overseas. Mr. Maness remains a danger, unable to accept the harm he has done,” said Floyd. “Instead, he insists he is the victim, but the jury and the judge saw through Maness’s fabricated claims of innocence.”
The investigation revealed that law enforcement authorities in Vietnam rescued two sisters who had been kidnapped off the street in April 2024. The children were taken to an Airbnb rented by Maness’s female coconspirator. Digital communications showed that Maness directed acts of sexual abuse against at least one child as young as six years old; images documenting these crimes were sent over the internet to Maness.
Authorities learned that Maness planned to travel to Vietnam for further criminal activity before his arrest in Seattle following coordination between Vietnamese detectives and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Since his arrest on August 28, 2024, Maness has remained in federal custody.
Prosecutors emphasized the seriousness of his actions in their submission to court: “What Maness did was monstrous. And that he refuses to accept responsibility and clings to a preposterous and wholly incredible story to justify his claims of innocence is beyond the pale. The threat he poses to children is thus grave, particularly given his unwillingness to admit that his sexual interest in children led him to perpetrate unspeakable harm. Lengthy incapacitation through imprisonment and close supervision for the remainder of his life once released must be the order of the day.” Judge Jones ordered an additional 20 years of supervised release following Maness’s prison term.
Homeland Security Investigations worked with Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security on this case.
Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew Hampton and Cecelia Gregson prosecuted this matter.
The prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative started in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation online by coordinating resources among federal, state, and local agencies nationwide. More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.justice.gov/psc.
