Richard McGowan

Douglas County, Nebraska District Judge Rich McGowan sentenced a man who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy and helped produce child sexual abuse material to probation — while a co-defendant convicted of the very same crime, against the very same victim, received 30 to 50 years in prison from a different judge.

Two Omaha men, Eric Bergstrom and Bradley Perry, were each convicted of first-degree sexual assault and of producing a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving the same 15-year-old boy. Bergstrom was sentenced by Judge Derek Vaughn to 30 to 50 years for the sexual assault and an additional 20 to 35 years for the child sexual abuse material — a term that keeps him in custody for roughly 25 years under Nebraska's good-time law.

Perry's case went to Judge McGowan after Vaughn was elevated to the Nebraska Supreme Court. For the identical charges, McGowan sentenced Perry to probation on the first-degree sexual assault count and to a minimum of three years on the child sexual abuse material count. From the bench, McGowan framed the decision as squarely his own: "Judge Vaughn is not here or available ... I am the law. The governor has entrusted me to make this decision."

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, whose office prosecuted both men, called the gap between the two sentences "borderline — in my own opinion, it's outrageous," and said the probation term "depreciates the seriousness of the crime." The State has appealed Perry's sentence to the Nebraska Supreme Court, where the Attorney General argues McGowan's "I am the law" remark would make a reasonable person question the impartiality of the decision. That appeal was still pending as of mid-2026.