Las Vegas man sentenced in child sexual exploitation case

A Las Vegas man was sentenced to 18 years and four months in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release on Tuesday after prosecutors said he sexually exploited a child in his care and possessed more than 2,000 files of child sexual abuse material depicting two children in his care and several other minors.

Daniel Lee Rhees was arrested in a child pornography sting in December 2020 by the Child Exploitation Task Force, comprised of investigators from the FBI and other Southern Nevada police agencies.

A Metropolitan Police Department arrest report said an undercover officer from the task force messaged Rhees, who later sent the officer graphic images.

The report said Rhees confessed to police “a summary of lewd acts involving the collection of child pornography on the internet.”

Investigators later confiscated a hard drive with the child sexual abuse material on it and, during a forensic examination of the devices, recovered material that included a 6-year-old girl and 4-year-old girl related to Rhees, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Rhees pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography.

His sentence also requires him to register as a sex offender, the attorney’s office said.

U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada said in a news release that Rhees “not only traumatized the children who trusted him, but he also possessed child sexual abuse material of additional victims.”

“Let today’s sentencing be a deterrent to others like this defendant,” she said.

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.