Lawrence man sentenced to prison for child sexual abuse material convictions

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez today announced that Bruce S. Springsteen, 65, of Lawrence, was sentenced to a total of 92 months in prison for attempted sexual exploitation of a child by conducting internet searches for child sexual abuse material and violating his probation terms.

“The children in these images are revictimized every time their sexual abuse is viewed,” District Attorney Valdez said. “My office remains unwavering in our commitment to disrupt this horrific crime.”

Judge Stacey Donovan sentenced Springsteen to 68 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections which is to be served consecutively to a 24-month sentence for violating the probations terms that had been set in a similar 2021 case.

Springsteen had pleaded no contest to three counts of attempted exploitation of a child in 2021. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison by Judge Donovan who then suspended that sentence to 24 months probation. Springsteen violated his terms of probation on or about June 19, 2022 when he attempted to conduct internet searches for explicit material of a child who was under 18 years of age.

Springsteen, who was sentenced Monday as a persistent sex offender in accordance with Kansas statute, had pleaded no contest in January for the 2022 case, Springsteen was already subject to lifetime registration as a sex offender based on his previous conviction.

The State was represented by Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden. The case was investigated by the Special Victims Unit of the Lawrence Police Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.